These rates indicate that standard variable rate borrowers are still paying less than they were before the crisis, but not by much. A widening of mortgage interest rate spreads over policy rates also occurred in the UK and in many euro area countries after the crisis, but spreads have begun to narrow in the UK and elsewhere.
But even though I am extremely optimistic, we have to bear one thing in mind: European banking supervision is an immensely complex operation that has been put together in a very short space of time. We should not expect everything to run smoothly from day one.