unprecedented effort, also on our part, to understand more fully how far the 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches banks we supervise are exposed to these risks. it will also give us a clearer picture of their resilience on this front. the second of these initiatives is a comprehensive review of banks ’ practices related to strategy, governance and risk management – the thematic review on c & e risks, which is a key topic of the session today. two years after we launched the supervisory guide on c & e risks, we are conducting this thematic review to follow up on the self - assessment exercise conducted last year. our main goal will be to assess the evolution of the soundness, effectiveness and comprehensiveness of banks ’ c & e risk management practices, as well as their ability to steer their c & e risk strategies and risk profiles. do all banks ’ processes and analyses have visible consequences? does the way in which banks actually steer their balance sheets and risk profiles reflect the materiality of c & e risks? these will be some of the core questions of this review. as part of this exercise, we will monitor banks ’ alignment with the supervisory expectations set out in the guide, and encourage banks ’ progress towards the industry ’ s best practices. fortunately, those practices were identified across different european banks over the last two years. they show that some banks are already doing what we are asking. the ecb is doing its part by guiding banks in their climate journey, setting forth supervisory expectations and sharing updates on good practices in the industry. in light of the efforts banks have already made in devising their action plans, as well as all the information on this topic published to date – by both the ecb and several other public and private organisations we expect to see material progress in banks ’ implementation deadlines and concrete actions. as part of the thematic review, we will also be looking more closely at the risk management practices for environmental risks such as risks to biodiversity, water stress and pollution. all have similar features and warrant a coordinated approach. banks can make significant savings if, taking advantage of the momentum, they extend the range of their preparations to cover all these risks, and are thus ready for a new, more concrete, supervisory and regulatory environment. our benchmark from last year shows that, as of early 2021, very few banks were looking into environmental risks beyond climate. we have highlighted this gap to banks. this year, we will assess how banks are managing their exposures to environmental risks beyond

quantitative definition of price stability as the “ best prediction ” of medium - term price developments, since the governing council is committed to changing monetary policy whenever this is necessary to maintain price stability. the publication of staff macroeconomic projections thus informs the public about an important input into the governing council ’ s decision process, which has already been used in the past. the publication of projections has to be considered in the context of the ecb ’ s monetary policy strategy. publication thus changes neither the ecb ’ s monetary policy strategy nor the role of these projections within it. i am convinced that publication of these staff projections can help to improve the ecb ’ s presentation and explanation of monetary policy decisions. however, if this is to be the case, the public - and the european parliament and your committee - must recognise the limitations of forecasts and projections that i have just described, and the implications these limitations have for the role of staff projections in the ecb ’ s strategy. 3. cross - border retail payment services in the euro area you may recall that in september 1999 the ecb published a report presenting the views of the eurosystem on how to improve cross - border retail payment services and defining the objectives that the industry is expected to achieve by 1 january 2002. in september this year, the ecb published a progress report. this report concludes that, although most objectives have not yet been fulfilled, substantial progress has been made in preparing the ground for a more efficient handling of cross - border retail payments. allow me to give you some examples : i. the banking sector has agreed on straight - through processing standards, which will allow the automated execution of cross - border payments ; ii. the euro banking association has developed a payment system specifically designed for cross - border low - value payments, which commenced operations on 20 november 2000 ; iii. as from 2002, cross - border payments below eur 12, 500 will no longer need to be reported for balance of payments purposes and hence statistical reporting will no longer constitute a justification for high customer fees. insufficient progress has been made in the field of customer prices. in too many cases, the payee has been charged with some costs even though the payer had agreed to bear all costs. two initiatives currently being developed by the european credit sector associations are intended to address this situation. first, a multilateral interbank exchange fee is being developed, which, provided that the fee is low, could be acceptable and could indeed contribute to solving the problem of “ double