a faster payment infrastructure that will make it possible to expand the range of payment possibilities in the payment system and to carry out, among other things, direct payments from a customers ’ account, conveniently and efficiently 24 hours a day, every day. promoting a faster payment system will reduce transaction costs, allow cross - border settlement, increase businesses ’ liquidity, and will reduce the use of cash. in addition, the bank of israel is examining additional steps to promote innovation and efficiency of the payment system in general, and of faster payment in particular. this is with an emphasis on the following issues : cross - broder payments, integration of electronic wallet payments, regulation of the execution of payments at businesses, and more. another project that the bank is promoting is open finance i would like to emphasize that from my perspective, its “ open finance ” and not “ open banking ”. the idea is to take away the control of customers ’ information and financial activities from the traditional financial entities and not just from banks, and to transfer the power to the customers themselves. we support promoting an “ open financial world ” which will include all the creators of all financial products. behind the scenes there will be a uniform api standard, which the bank is now promoting energetically, and that will allow a secure way to transfer customers ’ data from the customer ’ s service provider to a third party — such as another bank, a nonbank entity, a fintech company, etc. the advantages of this process are : strengthening the customer ’ s control over information about him or her, enhancing competition in the area of financial services, comparing costs, providing financial value proposals and financial intermediation, consulting on financial conduct, initiating financial activities, and more. in this regard, it is important for there to be access to all the financial players — to all the required information, as is generally accepted worldwide. these entities will be able to provide information and to offer advanced services. an additional issue that we are promoting is securitization a securitization transaction is one in which a corporation issues bonds whose maturity is secured by expected cash flows. while around the world the securitization market is about as 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches large as the corporate bond market, in israel this market is tiny and its value is only several billion shekels. this is, among other things, due to the lack of an appropriate regulatory infrastructure. the ability of the various entities to extend credit directly is limited,

yves mersch : monetary policy challenges for europe - banking on the recovery speech by mr yves mersch, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the 2017 institute of international finance ( iif ) spring membership meeting, tokyo, 8 may 2017. * * * introduction the recovery underway in the euro area is spreading by sector and geography and is gathering momentum. confirmation of a broadly balanced risk outlook is within realistic reach. the extraordinary monetary policy measures introduced since 2014 are bearing fruit. the financial sector has an important role to play in supporting this recovery and ensuring continued resilient growth in the future. my intention today is to give a brief overview of the recovery, before making a few remarks about financial institutions that are relevant to the current situation. economic recovery the first quarter of this year marked the 16th consecutive quarter of real growth in the euro area. in fact, gdp grew by 0. 5 % in the first quarter. this translates to annualised growth of 1. 8 %, according to eurostat – much higher than the 0. 7 % annualised growth recorded in the united states in the same quarter. moreover, the latest survey data support expectations of robust growth throughout the first half of 2017. the pmi composite output index – which is strongly correlated with growth in the euro area – registered its highest quarterly average in nearly six years during the first three months of 2017, while the forward - looking components of the survey data point to continued growth in future quarters. meanwhile, economic sentiment in the euro area is at a six - year high and unemployment is at an eight - year low. five million jobs have been created since 2013. this proves that the combination of consolidation and reform measures has worked where it was pursued credibly. the economic recovery is also broad - based. the dispersion of growth rates across both countries and sectors is at its lowest level in two decades, reflecting a convergence of growth rates at higher levels. this is good news for economic growth going forward because recoveries tend to be stronger and more resilient when they are broad - based. these developments have, of course, been supported by our monetary policy measures, which have led to a sharp easing of financing conditions and a convergence of funding costs across countries. the remaining spreads are clearly related to credit risks – which fall outside our mandate. the monetary policy measures taken since mid - 2014 have supported price stability in particular by buoying domestic demand, which is now the mainstay of the