barbados competitive, including our regulatory framework and superior infrastructure. we need to take appropriate measures to solidify our position in the canadian market ; we can ’ t afford to lose our strong companies, and those of long standing. however we must begin a deliberate campaign to diversify the countries that use our international financial centre, to reap the benefits of our network of double taxation agreements. that is an enterprise which we need to embark on together, the industry, the community of professionals active in the international financial centre, invest barbados, the ministry of international trade, the financial services commission and the central bank. finally, a word on the role the central bank plays. next month look out for the first issue of our new quarterly ibfs newsletter, to be published on our website. it will update you on all the latest developments affecting our ibfs sector. our contributors are all leading players in the industry, and we invite anyone who might wish to contribute to be in touch with neville pollard at the central bank. on march 15 we plan our second annual ibfs conference, together with fsc and biba. invitations will be sent out shortly. thanks, and i am happy to entertain your questions. bis central bankers ’ speeches

philip r lane : competition policy and central banking remarks by mr philip r lane, governor of the central bank of ireland, at the european movement ireland and central bank of ireland joint dinner in honour of commissioner margrethe vestager, dublin, 24 january 2019. * * * dear commissioner vestager, distinguished guests, i am delighted to host this dinner together with european movement ireland in honour of commissioner vestager. welcome to dublin and welcome to the central bank of ireland. the central banking community takes a strong interest in the competition portfolio held by commissioner vestager. in particular, there is increasing evidence that the level of competition and the vigour of competition policies are key factors in determining macroeconomic performance and long - run living standards. for instance, the recent empirical research of guttierrez and philippon ( 2017 ) and dottling et al ( 2017 ) finds that investment rates are negatively correlated with indicators of market concentration. moreover, the incentives for the leading firms in an industry to innovate are weaker in the absence of competitive pressures. taken together, less investment and less innovation imply lower productivity growth and lower living standards. one factor behind the different patterns by which market concentration is rising in the united states but not in europe is the vigorous approach to competition policy in the eu ( gutierrez and philippon 2018 ). importantly, this also maps into better outcomes for consumers, with prices higher in less competitive sectors. more competition also improves the prospects for workers by limiting the monopsony power of dominant employers to constrain wages. in addition to macroeconomic performance, competition policy ( and related state aid decisions ) is also influential in shaping the european financial system. the process of restructuring the european financial sector in the aftermath of the crisis has been disciplined by the imperative to maintain a level playing field. in terms of adjudicating the design of state aid interventions, the implementation of this principle is not always straightforward and this remains an ongoing challenge under the revised european bank recovery and resolution regime. a fundamental development in recent years in the euro area has been the initiation of banking union. as commissioner vestager herself remarked earlier this month : “ the fundamental strength of our internal market is its size ” ( vestager 2019 ). in the aggregate, the european banking system is quite fragmented : the development of banking union has the potential to deliver a more efficient, more competitive and more stable pan - european banking system. in the transition to banking union, we may expect to see an increase in cross -