I believe that the report - and, more generally, the monitoring activity of the committee reflected in the report - will bring two main benefits. First, the EU-wide scope of our analysis complements the similar analysis carried out by the competent authorities at the national level with reference to domestic banking systems.
Second, the close cooperation among central banks and supervisory authorities produces substantive value added in terms of forming an assessment of the relevant issues. Let me now turn to the main findings of the review. We find that banks’ profitability weakened in 2001 and showed a further weakening in the first half of 2002.