Let me quickly go over some of the most important changes to the primary market: •  Following the liberalization of interest rates in 1992 the auction system for Treasury bills was introduced to create a more transparent and market-based system of price determination that would encourage broader investor participation. •  Alongside the introduction of the auction system, the maturity structure was extended from the only existing term of 91 days to include 28 and 182 days in order to meet the various liquidity needs of investors. •  In 1995, Government bonds with a maturity term of 12 month and 18 months were added to the list of securities. •  Following the increased depth of the market, the structure of Government securities was streamlined with the termination of the 28 day Treasury bill issuance and the subsequent introduction of the 273 days maturity term. •  In 2005, reforms of the Government securities market continued with the cessation of the 12 months and 18 months Government bonds. In their place, a 364 day Treasury bill was introduced alongside the 3 and 5 years bonds. •  More recently, in August 2007, a portfolio of Government bond maturity terms was further increased to include the 7, 10, and 15 years. Since that period, the size of the outstanding issues has grown from 7% of GDP in 1994 to 17% by the end of 2007. With regard to secondary market, policy efforts have been initiated at different stages in the development of our market.
In the wording of the Treaty, the ECB is requested to contribute to the smooth conduct of policies pursued by the competent authorities with respect to the prudential supervision of credit institutions and the stability of the financial system. Furthermore, the ECB’s financial stability function is also related to its responsibility for overseeing financial market infrastructures. The legal framework under which the ECB collects statistical data has in fact recently been extended to expressly recognise its powers to collect data for this purpose. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  In 2011 the EU institutional framework was revised to explicitly address both macro and micro-prudential supervision. This led to the establishment of the European System of Financial Supervision, the three new European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) and the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB). The ECB is in charge of providing analytical and statistical support to the ESRB, notably by collecting and processing information that feeds into discussions within the ESRB. 1 3. What has been achieved so far? In recognition of an increasingly interconnected financial system, considerable progress is being made in the enhancement and development of new statistics at the euro area, EU and global level. At the euro area level, improvements in ECB statistics are notable with regard to, in particular, the development of enhanced statistics relating to monetary financial institutions (MFIs) and to shadow banking (e.g. securitisation vehicles).