That would provide gone-concern loss-absorbency for new improved resolution regimes to draw on. A still richer Accord might include instruments that aid recovery by converting into equity in the face of meaningful but not life-threatening losses. This approach moves away from seeing runnable short-term wholesale debt as a source of discipline on banks, to instead seeing longer-term bonds as providing a mass de manoeuvre for recapitalising distressed banks. Not all forms of leverage are the same. But no static regime can ever be enough. If they were, crises would not recur. That is why the new macroprudential authorities, such as the Bank of England’s FPC, will be able temporarily to adjust capital requirements when circumstances warrant. I have stressed that it is oversimplistic to think of macroprudential interventions to improve capital adequacy as always inevitably leading to higher funding costs and tighter credit conditions. It will depend upon the prevailing circumstances: whether the banks started out with solid balance sheets, what the market knows and thinks. The FPC will need to be transparent in order to build understanding of its actions. 15  I worry about the withering away of a market for bankers’ acceptances; claims by one company on another, but guaranteed by one or more banks, and historically eligible for discount at central banks. As I have said before, corporate treasurers, bankers and central banks could usefully work together on this.
The depreciation of the euro has also contributed to easing financing conditions. At its meeting on 3 September 2015, the Governing Council of the ECB expressed its readiness and ability, if required, to allow for more accommodation in its monetary policy stance. To this end, it could – if considered necessary – use the flexibility already embedded in the purchase programme to increase its size and extend its duration or modify its composition. The Spanish economy To conclude, I would like to briefly discuss the Spanish economy and its outlook. During 2015 the Spanish economy has been in what we could call a “virtuous triangle”, by simultaneously meeting three conditions: robust inflation-free growth, job creation and an external surplus. In 2015 we are going to achieve GDP growth of more than 3%, a negative average annual inflation rate, a current account surplus of more than 1 pp of GDP, and growth in employment and social security registrations, prompting expectations of an unemployment rate of less than 20% of the labour force by end-2016. However, the degree of uncertainty in economic projections has widened notably in recent months and the risks of slippage have risen owing to the downturn in the outlook for global growth. However, the Spanish economy is in a position to meet these challenges. The reforms implemented to date promote economic recovery and contribute to increasing Spain’s resilience in the face of exogenous shocks.