Although foreigners, including non-EU nationals, are present in all sectors and at all levels, their employment has increased mainly in professional and administrative support services, and not as is sometimes claimed, in sectors characterised by lower skill levels. The increased employment of foreign nationals across occupations has enabled organisations to grow and venture in new areas. A sudden reversal of this pattern could stall activity in several sectors. Efforts to upgrade the country’s infrastructure should therefore be complemented by measures that prevent a disorderly depletion of foreign human resources and enhance the skills of Maltese nationals. *** Favourable economic developments, although easing somewhat, are expected to continue to buttress financial stability. Lending volumes remain supportive of interest income but pressures on margins persist due to the low interest rate environment. Notwithstanding, profitability remains a challenge for traditional banking models such as those of our banks. In fact, though still comparing favourably with their European peers, the profitability of domestic banks has been slimming. In addition to the limitations on their ability to generate more interest income, banks have to contend with ‘no-fee’ alternative products being developed by fintech players which operate with a lower cost base and hail from a less intrusive regulatory environment. Concurrently, banks are facing a more rigorous and intrusive supervisory approach coupled with more rigorous standards of Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism. This is absolutely necessary and has our full and active support.
This does not mean that the Riksbank’s tasks would disappear, however, as claimed time and again by one of my predecessors Lars Wohlin. The majority of the Riksbank’s tasks would remain relatively unaffected by our participation. As I just mentioned, this applies to our work on financial stability, which would essentially remain a national responsibility for the foreseeable future. The Riksbank’s operational tasks such as monetary policy transactions, the management of the Riksbank’s assets, the collection of statistics, the management of banknotes and coins and various administrative tasks would also remain. I also object to the claim that the Riksbank would become a branch office of the ECB. In actual fact, the national central banks of the Eurosystem own the ECB. If Sweden were to join the Eurosystem, we would become a member of the board and be able to influence how the system as a whole develops in the future. That is hardly an opportunity available to local offices of other organisations. In addition, the Eurosystem is a decentralised system, in which the vast majority of tasks are carried out by the  BIS Review 29/2003  7  national central banks. Many tasks are also performed at national level completely outside the framework of the Eurosystem. The main change if Sweden were to participate in monetary union would be that decisions on the interest rate level in Sweden would be taken by the ECB Governing Council instead of by the Executive Board of the Riksbank.