Reinforcing Europe’s financial resilience – and growth potential

Keynote speech by Governor Olli Rehn, First Vice-Chair of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the 10th Annual Conference of the ESRB, Frankfurt, 2 October 2026

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is a great pleasure to address this special annual conference, marking 15 years of the European Systemic Risk Board. Its birth was not easy: the ESRB was created in the middle of the euro sovereign debt crisis.

Before that, the global financial crisis had exposed serious gaps in EU financial supervision. In response, the European Commission appointed a High-Level Group chaired by Jacques de Larosière. In just three months, it delivered a landmark report, the central insight of which was simple but crystal-clear: supervisors had paid too little attention to macroeconomic imbalances and risks spreading across the financial system.

The report laid the foundations for the ESRB and the wider European System of Financial Supervision.

As a Commissioner at the time, I had the privilege of preparing, together with my team, the legislative proposals establishing the ESRB. My colleague Michel Barnier led the work on the European Supervisory Authorities. The legislative process moved remarkably quickly, and the ESRB held its inaugural meeting in January 2011.

Looking back, the ESRB and the ESAs have made an important contribution to Europe's financial resilience. It embodies a lesson I have learned over 35 years of crisis management. In a world of polycrisis, it can be hard to know where the next shock will come from. But the best defence is still prevention — building resilience before the next crisis hits us.

SLIDE 3: Resilience in an age of uncertainty

Europe has shown considerable resilience during a period marked by extraordinary uncertainty. Yet it would be a mistake to underestimate the pressures we face.

Europe's financial system has faced several major tests since 2011.