Introductory remarks by Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, at the 34^th edition of “The outlook for the economy and finance”, organized by the European House – Ambrosetti

Cernobbio, 1 April 2023

Financial stability is essential to the ECB’s primary objective of price stability. The events of the past few weeks have reminded us of the benefits of strong and harmonised banking regulation and the importance of completing the banking union. We are closely monitoring developments in financial markets and financial institutions.

The euro area banking sector is resilient, with strong capital and liquidity positions that are well above the minimum requirements. And banks currently meet a very large portion of the liquidity requirements with the most liquid asset available – reserves held at the central bank. This situation is very different to 2008 and 2009. Since then, harmonised European banking supervision has been set up and we have made good progress in implementing…