In my remarks today, I will start by presenting our current assessment in the area of financial stability, looking first at the big banks before turning to the domestically focused banks. I will end my remarks with a few words on the new banknote series.
Big banks
Since the Financial Stability Report was published in June, the Swiss big banks have improved their capital situation slightly; at the same time, they have substantially increased their holdings of bail-in bonds. Bail-in bonds are debt instruments that can be written off or converted into equity in the event of restructuring or resolution. They form the basis for a crisis-hit bank to be resolved or restructured in an orderly way. Alongside capital requirements, the qualitative and quantitative requirements on such debt instruments are a key component of the revised 'too big to fail' regulations which came into force at the beginning of July.