I would like to thank Commissioner McGuinness for inviting me to speak at this conference on the Commission’s proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. When technology and finance unite around a common purpose, the consequences for monetary unions can be far-reaching. Let me borrow an example from US history. The economic and financial integration of the United States in the late 19th century owed a great deal to the new technology of railroads. With a fragmented local banking system, the huge amount of financing needed for this project could only be mobilised via capital markets, notably in the ... (full story)