It is an economic zone almost as large as the United States. I will follow the standard practice of distinguishing between “core countries” (such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium) and “peripheral countries” (such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy). 1  2  This speech is based on information available as of October 31, 2011. BIS central bankers’ speeches  A.
Proposals have been put forward, in particular in Europe, to establish colleges of supervisors in order to coordinate the oversight of financial institutions present in several countries. But it is difficult to know how well these colleges would be working in the presence of such conflicts of interest which create obstacles for the exchange of information, especially on critical institutions.