Finance for Europe's Future – Getting the Foundations Right – Speech by Governor Makhlouf at Eurofi Financial Forum Gala Dinner

Good evening.  I know you’ve already been here for a couple of days but it’s a pleasure to extend my own – slightly delayed – welcome to all visitors to Dublin. Today you have covered Basel divergence, the Banking Union, the Savings and Investments Union, stablecoins and banking competitiveness. You have certainly earned your dinner. You have also heard from Commissioner Albuquerque, Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis and Director-General Berrigan so, from me, no more on the legislative state of play. Instead, I want to step back and talk about the urgent choice in front of us. Two generations ago, Ireland was a small, capital-poor economy on the western edge of the continent whose principal export was its own people. Today it is one of the most open economies in the world, and home to a financial sector serving customers across the Union and beyond.  Our labour force has doubled over three decades. That transformation rested on a choice: to stop trying to prosper behind our own borders, and to open ourselves to – and integrate with – Europe and the world. Everything that followed was built on that decision and what came with it:  stable rules, open markets, cre...