In particular, since 2011, the large international banks have almost doubled their highest quality capital, from $ trillion to $ trillion in 2017. Moreover, since the start of the crisis, they have halved their leverage and improved their liquidity profiles, mainly thanks to an increase in high-quality liquid assets. Progress has also been made in other areas, such as simplifying and boosting transparency in the OTC derivative markets, including through the use of central clearinghouses, and measures have been taken to reduce some of the risks arising from non-bank financial intermediation. Nonetheless, we cannot ignore the persistence of certain risks and vulnerabilities. First, although large banks are now less leveraged, overall debt levels remain very high. Global public-sector and non-financial private-sector debt has increased by some 40 percentage points (pp) since the financial crisis to reach 250% of global gross domestic product (GDP); public-sector debt has increased significantly in the advanced economies and privatesector debt in the emerging economies, especially in China. Second, there has been an increase in the weight of non-bank financing. The weight of other financial intermediaries (OFIs)1 in the global financial system has been growing in recent years, and reached 30% in December 2016, according to the latest data available. This trend is confirmed by the growth in non-bank financial intermediation, which generates similar risks to banking; its weight in the global financial industry increased from 11.6% in 2010 to 13.4% in 2016.
Specifically, it is particularly worrying that almost half of the unemployed have been in this situation for over a year and that the unemployment rate among low-skilled population groups stands at over 25%. The serious mismatch between the skills of employees and the unemployed that tends to arise in such cases suggests there is a need for active employment policies to foster the employability of all socio-demographic groups using the tools that have proven to be effective for each of them. A rigorous evaluation of all the existing programmes is therefore necessary. In addition to considerations of economic efficiency, as highlighted by a recent analysis by the Banco de España, a lower unemployment rate is directly reflected in an improvement in levels of inequality. This positive effect of employment on income inequality would be 12/14  strengthened by reducing the high level of temporary employment in the labour market, provided this decrease did not come at the price of reducing the incentives for permanent hiring. As regards productivity, Spain’s levels are low by international standards. Improving the dynamics of this variable requires measures in various areas. In particular, it calls for improvements in human and technological capital. In this regard, it is necessary to bolster the legal framework for education to raise quality and address the challenges posed by globalisation, technological progress and automation. This reform also needs to foster innovation in universities and channel it toward the productive system.