Adequate reporting requirements were also imposed to monitor large cross-border flows of currency. “Know-your-customer” guidelines were issued to the banks as far back as 2001. However, the ever increasing sophistication with which criminals and terrorists operate globally have made our task to fight financial crime and terrorist financing even more daunting. In the final analysis, it is clear that, the financing of crime and terrorism is one of the most important dimensions of the physical violent acts unleashed by terrorists in the form of suicide bomb attacks, killing of innocent civilians, etc. This realization should confirm to us that very often we may be able to, through our collaborative efforts, prevent acts of terrorism by preventing the financing of crime and terrorism. If we can do that effectively, perhaps more than three fourths of the battle may be won. Without finances to equip themselves with sophisticated arms, intelligence, equipment, skills, machinery and techniques, terrorism will surely be on the wane. This then, is a fact that we must always be mindful of. 9/11 shocked the world. At the same time, it also united the world in its quest to defeat terrorism and eradicate financing of terrorism. Post 9/11, the whole world has renewed its battle against, this ever growing threat of terrorism. Until then, in a sad sort of a way, we in Sri Lanka, used to think that we were fighting this battle alone.
The firming and intensification of these trends will largely depend on developments in the Spanish economy and on recovery taking root. The outlook for the economy remains favourable; so far, it has proven resilient to an external environment in which growth forecasts for the global economy have been revised downwards, and in which the recovery in European countries – those most important for our economy – has lost momentum. Thus, on the domestic front at least, it would be necessary to embed the reforms under way, thereby enhancing our capacity for recovery. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  The start-up of the Single Supervisory Mechanism Among the challenges posed by the SSM is that of attaining quality bank supervision, applying strengthened and uniform standards and making the most use possible of the acquired knowledge of the various national authorities, while setting in place a common supervisory culture. In light of the work undertaken to date and the intense collaboration between the ECB and the national authorities, these goals are realistic. The Banco de España is striving to ensure this is a successful process, cooperating with the ECB and the other SSM participants. We have adapted our organisational arrangements and working methods to smooth interaction with the SSM and the ECB. A further key challenge will be to maintain a level playing field in the member countries, applying uniform supervisory principles. That is a major challenge, given that in Europe there is a wide diversity of banking models and legal systems.