The Eurosystem therefore has voiced its support for setting a realistic but ambitious end-date for the SEPA migration. Regulatory and supervisory initiatives I now turn to the second major theme of my speech. These are the recent regulatory and supervisory initiatives in Europe that are closely related to financial integration and that are particularly relevant in light of the ongoing financial crisis.
As I mentioned earlier, financial integration presents large potential benefits for the European economy. At the same time, it also poses important challenges to supervisory authorities and central banks. Indeed, while more integrated markets increase the shock-absorbing capacity of the financial system, such shocks may propagate more quickly, thereby affecting a wider number and range of market participants.