Petar Goshev: Macedonia – the crisis, its impact and future challenges Opening speech by Mr Petar Goshev, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, at the XIV Annual Meeting of ACI Macedonia – The Financial Market Association, Ohrid, 26 September 2009. *  *  *  Ladies and Gentlemen, Honorable members of ACI – the Financial Markets Association It is an honor to open the fourteenth annual meeting of ACI – the Financial Markets Association held in a year of exceptional challenges for both the global financial markets and the financial markets in the Republic of Macedonia. I would like to address three issues, not for a moment forgetting the key word for a successful functioning of the financial markets – the trust. 1)  What are the reasons behind the current financial and economic crisis? 2)  How and to what extent has the financial crisis spilled over the Republic of Macedonia? and  3)  What are the challenges in the future period? At the beginning, let me address briefly the reasons behind the current financial and economic crisis. The financial crisis could also be compared with an illness of a human organism. In both cases, the finding of a cure first requires identification, and then remedy of the reasons that caused the illness, i.e. the crisis. Observing the events over the several recent years, the reasons behind the current crisis could be divided into two broad categories: macroeconomic and microeconomic.
Luis M Linde: Reflections on the planned Banking Union in Europe Address by Mr Luis M Linde, Governor of the Bank of Spain, at the First Bank of SpainOMFIF Economists Club Meeting, Madrid, 21 October 2013. *  *  *  Dear colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen: It is a pleasure to host this first Banco de España-OMFIF Economists Meeting. I am fully confident that it has provided an excellent opportunity to review and assess the latest developments in the Spanish and European economy and the present situation of the Spanish Financial System. I would like to share with you some reflections on the Banking Union in Europe which is, as we all know, a very important matter for the present European financial scenario. The thrust for the design of such a fundamental reform as the Banking Union in the economic governance of the European Union has come from the crisis, both international and European. The euro zone financial and sovereign-debt crisis has shown the shortcomings of the European institutional framework, triggering a wave of reforms that would, otherwise, most probably, not have taken place. Last year, the Presidents of the Council, ECB, European Commission and Eurogroup agreed on the milestones for building a new Economic and Monetary Union, based, in principle, on four blocks: the banking union is the first of those blocks, to be complemented, according to the political design, a later stage, with a fiscal union, an economic union and, finally, a political union.