To misquote Mark Twain, although crises do not repeat themselves they do rhyme. Long-lived institutions are likely to be better able to recall those ancient rhymes. Second, financial policymakers should ideally be arms-length from the political process – for example, operationally independent for regulatory tools. This reduces the temptation to trade off an asset boom today for a bust tomorrow. It helps delivers greater investment in future financial stability and greater insurance against fat tail risk. It helps avoid the ultimate deceit of mortgaging the unborn. BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  Third, financial policy needs to have a system-wide focus. In the jargon, it needs to be macro-prudential in nature (Crockett (2000)). That is essential in an integrated “robust-yetfragile” world where crises, when they come, are fat-tailed and global. Because it is systemwide, macro-prudential regulation may also help muffle the siren voices of vested interests, increasing the chances of an inclusive, rather than extractive, regime. In large measure, these institutional characteristics are reflected in the UK’s new regulatory arrangements. These came into place with the passage of the Financial Services Act (2012). Under this framework, responsibility for prudential policy falls to the Bank of England. It is split between the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) carrying out micro-prudential regulation and the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) conducting macro-prudential policy.4 The new institutional framework for UK financial policy in many respects mirrors that for UK monetary policy. As with monetary policy, both the FPC and PRA have operational independence when setting certain prudential instruments.
For example, as part of a strategy to stimulate business growth, smaller firms with high productivity potential should be helped to access a wider range of external sources of funding on more advantageous conditions, while the policies supporting business innovation should be strengthened. This is the topic of the second session. Third, the fight against climate change and the transition towards a more sustainable economy are also important challenges facing the world economy in general and Spain in particular. There is for example consensus among the scientific community that the Iberian Peninsula could be significantly affected by the physical risks associated with climate change and that this impact would be highly uneven across regions. Resolutely addressing this challenge will entail a profound structural change in our growth model that will have far-reaching implications for all areas of activity. This transformational process will also, foreseeably, have a very unequal impact across the different regions, industries, firms and households. 4  In this green transition, governments have a leading role to play through, for instance, green taxation, compensatory measures to mitigate the transition costs for the most vulnerable groups, public investment and the regulation of economic activity. The fourth session of the conference addresses this topic. Last but not least, the sustainability of public finances is one of the most important challenges facing the Spanish economy. The Spanish debt-to-GDP ratio increased by 82.7 percentage points between 2007 and 2021, to reach 118.4%, as compared with 95.6% in the euro area.