A number of European policy initiatives and recommendations – largely in the framework of the Lisbon strategy – to promote productivity growth in the euro area have already been put forward by expert groups, including the recommendations in the Sapir report of July 2003 and the more recent Kok report of November 2004.
Capital and liquidity standards The recent financial crisis exposed significant weaknesses in the regulatory capital requirements for large banking institutions in many parts of the world, including the United States. The amount of capital held by many banking institutions proved to be inadequate given the risks that had built up in the financial system.