However, it is clear that even without taking countermeasures such as a cost saving programme or adjusting pricing margins accordingly the resulting losses can be met out of the core capital ratio at the time, and will affect the Verbund's long-term yield position only to a limited extent.

The new prudential regime that will apply to insurers from 1 January 2016, Solvency II[14], will allow companies to invest more in long-term assets by removing national restrictions on the composition of their asset portfolio.[15] Furthermore, the Commission has ensured that the standard formula to calculate insurers' capital requirements does not impose obstacles to long-term investment and matching long-dated liabilities with long-dated assets[16].

If the funding of resolution were to remain national in the longer term, the link between sovereigns and the banking sector would not be fully broken, and investors would continue to establish borrowing conditions according to the place of establishment of the banks rather than to their creditworthiness.

In addition, the Irish authorities should closely monitor the evolution of the Net Stable Funding ratio and the Liquidity Coverage ratio of the banks so as to ensure convergence with the standards emerging within the Basel III framework. The authorities should ensure that targets are achieved by establishing a credible framework for monitoring progress based on interim targets and appropriately incentivised governance arrangements within the banks.

BGB’s provisionally approved core‐capital ratio of 5 % was therefore below the long‐term average of comparable banks, while the provisionally approved own‐funds ratio was a mere 0,1 % above the mean value for the years 1995 to 2000.

Over the last seven to eight years, since the start of the crisis, there has been a substantial reduction in the EU’s growth potential.[9] According to the latest estimates, the annual growth in potential output of the EU fell from slightly above 2 per cent ten years ago to below 1 per cent currently.[10] Besides the long-term demographic developments,[11] the medium-term slowdown in the activity can be attributed to weak productivity gains and the slow accumulation of capital.[12] The role of capital formation (including RD) as a driver of growth has been limited in recent years, as the investment ...[+++]ratio remains substantially lower than a few years ago in almost all EU countries.[13]