Keynote speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the ECB Forum on Banking Supervision 2025

It is a pleasure to deliver the last keynote speech of this year’s banking supervision forum. Over the past two days, we have discussed what resilience means in times of challenge, complexity and disruption – and why resilience should be broad based.^[1] As the Chair mentioned yesterday morning, broad-based resilience is about strong financials, but equally about operational resilience, sound governance and good risk management. 

During this period of profound change, a debate on European competitiveness has emerged with full force. Many are asking what the key impediments and main enablers might be for a more competitive European economy. How can we tackle the former and improve the latter? And what role does the banking sector play in shaping the competitiveness of the real…