The majority of the key measures relating to securities market in the Action Plan are expected to be adopted before the end of this year or the spring 2004. Discussions and consultations continued in several crucial areas such as the overhaul of the Investment Services Directive - a cornerstone of the FSAP and a key area in terms of European financial integration and investors protection, post trading activities (clearing and settlement), the review of the capital requirements that apply to financial institutions and a framework for the supervision of the reinsurance sector. 2. Financial integration is an ongoing process with renewed challenges in a constantly changing environment  We can easily measure the significant progress that have already been made in terms of financial integration. However, and this is the second topic I wanted to touch upon, in a constantly changing environment, and as the integration process deepens, new challenges arise that need to be addressed and taken duly into account in our reflection on the integration of European financial markets. Preserving financial stability is obviously among those challenges. In that regard, there are two specific and crucial issues on which we need to concentrate our efforts: the deepening of co-ordination among financial supervisors and the restoration of public confidence in financial markets. 2.1 Central banks, as well as public authorities and market participants, have a collective responsibility to find the ways to ensure that market globalisation goes along with financial stability. Financial stability is a complex concept.
Early outreach to customers whose finances are most vulnerable in the current circumstances whilst bearing in mind relevant FCA guidance12. Ensuring that customer support and collections arrangements are appropriately scaled so they can expand rapidly if need be. This is, of course, not an exhaustive or comprehensive list but simply highlights some of the good practices we are seeing amongst the firms we supervise. However, the message is clear: the outlook is highly uncertain; and we expect firms to be proactive in enhancing the way you manage the risks in your credit portfolios – rather than simply  11 UK Deposit Takers Supervision: 2023 priorities (bankofengland.co.uk) 12 FG23/2: Guidance for firms supporting existing mortgage borrowers impacted by rising living  costs | FCA  Bank of England  Page 5  relying on historic approaches. Doing so will enable you to continue to support your members in a sustainable way. As your supervisor, we have been increasing our own focus on credit risks. You will probably have seen this in your firm’s engagement with our supervisory teams; through the questions we are asking, the data we are collecting and the reviews we are conducting both with individual firms and thematically. And, of course, our Annual Cyclical Scenario stress test will enable us to assess the resilience of the largest UK deposit takers. The results of this will be published in July. We expect all other firms to use the PRA published scenario as a benchmark in their own stress testing processes.