This is designed to enable banks to absorb losses during periods of economic and financial disruptions. Furthermore, a stricter definition of core capital will be applied. Yet, this first line of defence needs to be supplemented. In a market-based economy it is neither possible nor desirable to entirely prevent the failure of individual enterprises.
It must be acknowledged that it is difficult to detect and isolate the direction of causality between the oil price and the US dollar. Overall, for the ECB and the euro area, the international role of the euro offers positive opportunities and serious challenges. This explains the ECB’s neutral stance aimed at neither directly promoting nor hindering the international use of the euro.