at the national level of 64 percent over the same period. 2 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches within commercial and industrial ( c & i ) lending for these banks, small business lending is particularly important, given the traditional role of small businesses in job creation. while data are not immediately available on borrower size, we can look at a simple proxy for small business lending by isolating individual c & i loans to commercial borrowers that are each under $ 1 million. these data show that while the dollar value of small c & i loans has grown since 2010, the pace of growth has not been as high as overall c & i lending growth. as a result, small c & i loans now constitute a smaller portion of total c & i lending, both in the second district and nationally ( chart 2 ). this is likely due, in part, to nominal factors, but could also reflect underlying economic conditions. turning to community banks, they have historically held a disproportionate amount of small commercial loans, and this is a trend that has continued post - crisis. among all second district firms with less than $ 50 billion in total assets, community banking organizations ( cbos ) hold 54 percent of total assets, but 66 percent of total small commercial loans. this share has declined somewhat since 2011 ( chart 3 ). within small commercial lending, cbos are especially important when it comes to small commercial real estate ( cre ) loans, providing 79 percent of total cre loans under $ 1 million. 3 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches given the importance of small businesses to employment and growth in so many communities around our district, we welcome hearing your views on what might be driving these trends. more generally, we are interested in your assessment of business and lending conditions in the communities that you serve. what are the key challenges and opportunities that community banks face? your insight will provide a key supplement to our quantitative research, and combining these two perspectives will support our efforts to understand what we are seeing in small business lending. our supervisory teams are interested in your insights when we visit your organizations to conduct examinations and in venues like this conference. enhancing the framework as i ’ ve said earlier, supervisors recognize it is important to ensure that the oversight framework continues to function efficiently. in that regard, the federal reserve recently participated in a review, as mandated by the economic growth and regulatory paperwork reduction act of 1996 ( egrpra ), to identify rules that are outdated, unnecessary, or

. this fact alone explains our keen interest in ensuring their smooth operation. but our interest goes beyond monetary policy implementation. the infrastructures also play a major role in enabling the snb to perform other statutory duties, such as facilitating and securing the operation of cashless payment systems and contributing to the stability of the financial system. as mentioned, the financial sector is experiencing a surge of innovation. the financial market infrastructures, and hence the central banks, stand to be affected by these changes. as this process unfolds, the snb ’ s task is to strike the right balance between maintaining stable conditions and promoting useful innovation. in this speech i will outline why we are most likely to achieve safe and efficient outcomes if we can balance the interests of market participants, regulators and central banks. switzerland has topped the global innovation index ( www. wipo. int ) for the last six years. page 2 / 6 financial industry – same core functions, evolving technology the theme for this year ’ s sibos conference is ‘ transforming the landscape ’. new technologies are paving the way for new financial services. while there are certainly some interesting innovations in the offing, it is important to recognise that many of the financial industry ’ s core functions will remain largely unchanged. the role of financial intermediaries is, first, to help their clients fund new investments and, second, to offer them investment opportunities and asset protection strategies. their third role is to facilitate securities safekeeping, and their fourth is to execute payments on behalf of their clients. customers have long required these basic services, and they will continue to need them in the future. in short, the economic function of the financial industry has not changed. however, the technologies and channels by which financial services are requested and delivered are changing. the digitalisation of payment transactions, for instance, has helped to make cashless payments cheaper and simpler for customers – even if efficiency could still be further improved, especially where cross - border payments are concerned. the advent of dematerialised securities years ago is another example of innovation within the financial industry ; this change greatly increased the efficiency of securities settlement and safekeeping. the digital transformation has also added value in another way : it has enabled bank customers to execute transactions with greater temporal flexibility and geographical independence. these days, traditional bank counters have morphed into apps that live on our smartphones. such useful innovations have the potential to improve aggregate economic welfare. the challenge for regulators and central banks is to make sure they