16.07.2020  50th anniversary of the UNAAC Margarita Delgado Deputy Governor  Good afternoon. Thank you very much, Manuel. And my thanks also to Cristina for this invitation for me to speak to you today, on the 50th anniversary of the UNACC. It is a shame that we have not been able to celebrate this anniversary as was originally planned. We are living through strange and difficult times, but we must adapt to them. Yet despite this unique scenario, a 50th anniversary is an event well worth celebrating. Anniversaries, especially those which mark the passage of a decade, not least a halfcentury, are an ideal time to take stock of our achievements. Undoubtedly during this period a great deal has been achieved, but if you will allow me, in my supervisory capacity, I would like to make some mention of those areas where we must continue to improve. Over these 50 years we have been through several banking crises. The picture of our financial system as it stands today is naturally the result of these crises. And one point to note in this “family” photo is the large number of cooperatives which are present. The truth of the matter is that a highly significant number of credit cooperatives, or rather, a highly significant number of yourselves, have overcome these crises.
The principle underlying this single supervisory mechanism is that the severity of the crisis in the euro area has largely been due to the vicious circle that developed between banking and sovereign risk. To break this link, we need to have a genuine institutionalised banking union that ensures not only the same supervision throughout the euro area, but also identical rules, an integrated bank crisis resolution mechanism and a common deposit guarantee scheme. We are moving towards the banking and financial union that was missing from monetary union. 3. The Eurosystem is providing valuable support during this period of necessary reforms  It is clear that the ultimate responsibility for exiting the crisis lies with governments, at national level – implementing reforms, consolidating public finances and restoring competitiveness – and at the collective level – agreeing on and implementing a more coherent and comprehensive institutional framework around monetary union. These reforms are obviously – and fortunately – the fruit of a democratic process and can only be that. But  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  the corollary to this is that these necessary reforms cannot be immediate: they take time, first to be implemented and then to yield their effects. And the time of the markets is not that of democracy, as you know. Doubts and delays create nervousness, volatility and worry in financial markets, which often leads to sharp rises in interest rates for countries deemed to be vulnerable.