jose luis escriva : ceremony of taking up of office as governor of the bank of spain speech by mr jose luis escriva, governor of the bank of spain, at the ceremony of taking up of office as governor of the bank of spain, madrid, 24 september 2024. * * * good morning and many thanks for joining us for this event. it is an honour to address you all as i take up the reins as the governor of the banco de espana with a great sense of responsibility. today is a day that holds particular significance for me. to return to the banco de espana is to come home, back to the place where i first made my way as an economist and where i learned so much from my superiors and colleagues. my journey of discovery then continued at other central banking institutions : the european monetary institute, the bank for international settlements and the european central bank. indeed, when congratulating me on my appointment, my boss at this last institution ( professor ottmar issing ) remarked : " don't forget what you have learned ". for the fact is that central banks are an extraordinary school of learning. rigour, the quest for evidence - based objectivity and the exercise of independent judgment, among others, are core values of central banking culture and have served as my guide throughout my professional career. these values proved particularly useful when it fell to me to give shape to the independent authority for fiscal responsibility, over which i presided for the institution's first six years, starting in 2014. the same can be said of my time at the head of the network of eu independent fiscal institutions. guarding the institution's independence against external influences and constraints constituted a singular challenge from day one. i was also undoubtedly helped in this task by having had the great fortune of meeting and working with each and every one of the banco de espana's governors and deputy governors since the institution was first granted independence back in 1994, exactly 30 years ago. because all of them, in differing circumstances and in environments of varying complexity, understood that the banco de espana's de jure independence must go hand - in - hand with conduct and a management style that ensure that such independence also remains a de facto reality. and, speaking of banco de espana governors, i would be remiss not to single out my predecessor, pablo hernandez de cos. pablo and i have a very fruitful relationship, stretching back over more than 25 years. during his mandate he went to

a more progressive direction. firstly, i think that the eu needs to be ambitious, and set an example. i am convinced, and have said in many of my recent interventions, that the eu can and should go further, deeper and faster than the wider international community in finding greater consistency, convergence and efficiency in banking supervision. we should especially take advantage of the opportunities presented by basel ii and the fact that we already have a body of single market legislation and a long history of supervisory cooperation on which to build. and if we can demonstrate that progress is possible among 25 countries that are still rather diverse, others will have more confidence to push ahead also. secondly, we should recognise the legitimate concerns of the industry. more efficient supervision is a necessary - although not sufficient - condition for a more integrated market. we undoubtedly need a greater degree of co - ordination between supervisors than hitherto, and we need greater consistency in supervisory practices. as i said, we need a framework that rationalises the compliance burden and streamlines the interaction between supervisory authorities. we need banks that manage risks, not unnecessary supervisory requirements. thirdly, we need an approach that uses the full range of tools at our disposal. in other words, we should not just look for legislative solutions to the challenges that face us. what we need is effective and timely implementation of the laws and regulations that exist, and convergence in their application. this comes through co - operation and information - sharing between supervisors. and let me also mention here the potential offered by supervisory transparency. we have heard much about market discipline in the context of the disclosure requirements that will apply to banks under pillar 3 of the revised basel capital framework. but i think that increased disclosure by supervisors, especially on a comparable basis, also has an important role to play, not only in helping us to monitor consistency of approaches across countries, but also in driving greater convergence through exerting a kind of market discipline for supervisors. finally, allow me to put my basel hat on for a moment. i think basel ii certainly offers its fair share of implementation challenges, but also provides us with by far the biggest opportunity to make progress in building a more consistent and efficient co - operative approach to supervision. i have mentioned four prudent principles, plus another four more forward - looking ones. some may emphasise the former, while others may prefer to move faster. my own view is that there is some urgency in moving forward significantly. building the european framework so let us now focus on