A number of studies give a consistent answer: State economic performance measured in a variety of ways improves after the deregulation of geographic restrictions on banking (for example, Kroszner and Strahan, 2006; Stiroh and Strahan, 2003; Black and Strahan, 2001; Jayaratne and Strahan, 1998; and Jayaratne and Strahan, 1996). These results have important implications for the policy debate in Europe and around the globe.
And with a continuing build-up in capitalization, our banking sector more than meets national and international standards. In fact, our semestral stress tests confirm further that bank capitalization stands resilient, even against extreme tail events. Indeed, the numbers do speak for themselves. Ladies and gentlemen. The sustained growth and stability of our banking sector in 2015 happened amid global financial turmoil.