The exit by Ireland and Portugal from their EU/IMF programme shows that reform efforts and sacrifices are bearing fruit. Beyond these economic governance reforms, and reflecting the lessons drawn from the financial crisis, significant progress has been achieved with regard to financial sector policies, both in the EU as a whole and in the euro area.
First, in the late 2000s it became clear that the financial sector had to be put on a safer and more resilient footing. To this end, EU legislators adopted the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) in April 2013: this was an essential step towards strengthening the stability of the banking sector and thereby preventing future crisis.