Welcome remarks by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB and Chair of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the seventh annual conference of the ESRB

Frankfurt am Main, 16 November 2023

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the seventh annual conference of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).^[1]

Societies throughout history have always found ways to alert people to the potential materialisation of risks so they have time to successfully pre-empt them.

Some methods were simpler than others. In the Middle Ages, for example, village bells were rung to raise the alarm.^[2] But today, the complexity of our economy means that risks can appear from all angles, and the task of signalling them is often assigned to expert bodies. The ESRB was set up precisely to identify the risks emanating from an interconnected financial system that national actors might not see.

Just over twelve months ago, the ESRB published a “general warning” about financial stability risks, addressed to all…