As I previously stressed, some of the risks surrounding the economic outlook, globally and in Europe, stem from the ongoing financial turmoil, which has caused sizeable losses for banks in several advanced industrial economies and has resulted in increased financing costs and tighter credit market conditions.
Equally important, both our on-site examinations and our off-site surveillance system, which uses statistical models to attempt to flag emerging weaknesses at community banks, detect signs of potential problems at very few banks. Consistent with this view, community bank capital ratios remain impressively high, and community banks' ability to attract deposits continues to be a source of strength.