The Portuguese banking system: recent developments and prospects  Having described the main elements of our strategy to secure financial stability, let me now take a few minutes to comment briefly upon how the banking sector is performing in the new context.
In a nutshell, the main message is that Portuguese banks have been strengthening their capital base and reducing their funding imbalances in spite of extremely adverse external conditions and declining profitability. I mentioned a while ago that the banking sector has shown impressive resilience throughout the international financial crisis.