That said, there are measures that should be studied to reactivate credit for the entire economy and, in particular, to SMEs and to the exporting sector. The European Investment  4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Bank has the means to stimulate loans to SMEs through an increase in its funding to European public-sector banks operating in this area. New arrangements could also be studied for risk-sharing using European funds, for example structural funds, a possibility that is already under discussion. And specific schemes to boost export credit could be studied. Within the Eurosystem, the Banco de España has always been in favour of initiatives geared to supporting more and cheaper credit, through unconventional monetary policy measures that help restore the monetary policy transmission mechanisms. But we know that the normalisation of credit will not come about, or will be slower and difficult, if we do not complete the clean-up and reinforcement of the solvency of our banking system. This is why it is important to clearly understand what has been done in 2012 to overcome the crisis and to evaluate the current state of affairs. Clean-up, recapitalisation and restructuring of the banking system and financial reform I shall focus on the six issues that afford us an overview of the situation: the clean-up efforts in 2012, the strengthening of solvency, the improved liquidity position, developments in nonperforming loans, expectations for results in the current year, and, finally, regulatory changes approved in 2012. Clean-up Firstly, balance sheet write-downs.
The debate will be moderated by Mr. Valentin Lazea, the National Bank of Romania Chief Economist. Thank you for attending this conference, which I do hope will turn out to be a very successful one. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches