Abstract: The global financial crisis of 2008-09 and the ensuing sovereign debt crisis have put the central banks' statistical function under pressure. On the one hand, they have highlighted the need to improve data coverage in some specific areas (e.g. information on financial groups that operate across borders and through non-bank subsidiaries) as well as the users' willingness to have more comprehensive and detailed statistical information. On the other hand, the economic and financial landscape has become increasingly more complex, which means that portraying it in a precise and timely fashion has become a much more challenging task for the central banks' statisticians. In this presentation, the lessons we have learned from the financial crisis are presented, and the key role played by the statistics of the Banco de Portugal in this context is emphasized.