This is why the Fund is an integrated entity located in Norges Bank. Norges Bank works to preserve the Fund’s long-term financial value. Responsible investment is part of that task. As a long-term financial investor, the Fund stands to benefit from sound and sustainable growth in the companies and markets included in its investment universe. We use a variety of instruments to exercise our ownership rights. We engage in close dialogue with companies, investors and regulatory authorities. We vote at shareholder  BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  meetings in line with pre-defined principles and publish our voting results on a regular basis. We also submit shareholder proposals and participate in consultations based on the fundamental principles that we apply in the exercise of ownership rights. Norges Bank integrates the considerations relating to corporate governance, the environment and social conditions into the investment process. Because the Fund is a longterm financial investor, we place considerable emphasis on our role as responsible investor. The overriding goal, which is the highest possible return at an acceptable level of risk, remains firmly established. If Norges Bank is assessed using criteria other than return and risk, its mission will become unclear. This might also impact return performance. There must be no doubt as to the objective of investment management. Norway’s enormous economic progress since 1814 has not been linear. Rapid population growth and food crises in the latter half of the 1800s led to the massive emigration of close to 1 million Norwegians to America.

It will bring together the governors of the national central banks, the new European Supervisory Agencies (ESAs), the European Commission and the national supervisory authorities of all 27 member states. The establishment of the ESRB was first recommended in February 2009 in the report of a high-level group chaired by Jacques de Larosière. The new institution is backed by a remarkably strong consensus between the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament. In the Parliament, the legislation underpinning the establishment of the ESRB was approved with an overwhelmingly large majority of 80%. This gives a strong backing to the ESRB and its mission. The ECB will contribute to establishing the ESRB as a credible and effective body. Concretely, the ECB will host the Secretariat of the ESRB, thereby making it operational and providing analytical, statistical, logistical and administrative support. But whilst the ESRB Secretariat will be located at the ECB, the ESRB will be a separate body, distinct from the ECB. The establishment of the ESRB will not affect the mandate and the functioning of the ECB’s statutory role in monetary policy. The establishment of the ESRB will be a landmark event in how Europe deals preventively with systemic risk. It forms part of wider developments across the globe, including in the US with the newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). Very much like the ESRB, this council is a collaborative body bringing together the relevant US authorities with the aim of identifying systemic risk and responding to threats.