This initiative addresses all the three shortcomings that I have just mentioned. The FSB standard contains a comprehensive list of tools and powers which every national resolution authority should have. This means that they aim to improve the national regimes, while at the same time providing for convergence. The FSB key attributes also strengthen, in my view, the group resolution concept, by envisaging that recovery and resolution plans also have a global perspective. Making the national supervisors and resolution authorities plan together how the problems of their groups could be handled would already be a big step forward. In that context, the authorities will also be asked to take into consideration the effects of cross-border contagion in crisis scenarios and simultaneous stress situations in several significant markets. I would also highlight the fact that authorities will also have the right to improve the resolvability of large and complex groups. Let me recall here that Lehman Brothers had a presence in some 50 countries and comprised almost 3000 legal entities before the crisis. Simplifying the structure of global systemic groups could well be extremely useful in preparing for future crises, but authorities will clearly need to work very closely with one another to implement such modifications with great care. Should the group get into difficulties, the Crisis Management Groups could indeed be helpful in promoting cooperation. With such a forum in place, there would at least be a chance of authorities reaching a consensus on how to resolve a cross-border bank.
I have no doubt that the quality of the discussions we have today will allow us to deepen our understanding of these challenges and, hopefully, allow us to draw some useful conclusion in terms of economic policy. I leave the floor now to Mr. Isidro González, Deputy Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean, thanking him as well as you all for your presence here today, and thanking Mr. Senén Florensa, President of the Executive Committee of IEMed, for the cooperation in the organisation of this event. Now, Isidro, the floor is yours. 3/3