guy quaden : review of significant events in 2005 introductory speech by mr guy quaden, governor of the national bank of belgium, at the ordinary general meeting of the national bank of belgium, brussels, 27 march 2006. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i would like to welcome you, both personally and on behalf of my colleagues on the board of directors, on the occasion of this ordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the national bank of belgium. i also hope that this meeting can proceed smoothly and enable us to answer, in a calmer atmosphere than last year, the questions which you have submitted to us and any others that you raise. we want to answer as many questions as possible, but reasonably quickly and in an orderly way. in particular, this meeting is not the place to answer questions concerning the legal actions which are still pending before the courts, nor questions which do not concern the past financial year. as last year, i would like to give you a brief account of the most significant events in the year under review, before handing over to the vice - governor who will present and comment on the annual accounts for 2005. various new projects entrusted to the bank by the public authorities and the economic agents in general bear witness to the confidence which belgian society as a whole continues to place in our institution. the principal project concerns the future of the means of payment. in 2004, the ministers of finance, economic affairs and consumer protection commissioned the bank to organise a national dialogue on the efficiency of the payment systems in belgium. to that end, the bank set up a steering committee on the future of the means of payment, with representatives from all the parties concerned. in 2005, that steering committee published two reports : the first concerns the costs, advantages and disadvantages of the various means of payment, and the second deals with the modernisation of the payment channels used by the public authorities. this steering committee has yet to address the question of the transition to the single euro payments area, in which the payment systems of various countries will be integrated, augmenting the efficiency of cross - border payments. the establishment of synergies between the bank and the cbfa, provided for by the law of 2 august 2002 on the supervision of the financial sector and on financial services, has continued, particularly in regard to financial stability, it systems and crisis management. however, the only way of fulfilling the ultimate goal of the reform is by fostering still closer links and the spirit of cooperation, with due respect

guy quaden : cashssp – the cash single shared platform remarks by mr guy quaden, governor of the national bank of belgium, on the occasion of signing the cash single shared platform contract between bank of finland and the central banks of belgium, luxembourg and the netherlands, bank of finland, helsinki, 16 march 2007. * * * dear governor, dear erkki, dear colleagues, first of all, let me thank you for your kind invitation and for organising this event. the eurosystem is an entity which has no equivalent anywhere in the world. for me, the creation of the ecb did not raise any doubts on the usefulness of the ncbs. in fact, the reverse is true. luxembourg, the only country which did not have its own central bank, had to create one just before the transition to the single monetary policy. nevertheless, our integration into the eurosystem has obviously influenced the life of our institutions. i think on two changes which are not necessarily apparent to the outside world. the first is due to the fundamental change in the actual role of our ncbs, which now participate in the management of the world's second most important currency. the decisions taken in frankfurt are taken on a collegiate basis by the governing council. this means that every governor of an ncb must be properly prepared to deal with all the issues considered at that level. they concern not only the single monetary policy but also the eurosystem's other spheres of activity, such as financial stability and payment systems. in recent years, our ncbs have therefore extended and strengthened their analysis capacity. a large proportion of our staff is nowadays involved at various levels in the preparation of these decisions " taken in frankfurt ". the investment in resources is substantial, and so is the resulting enrichment of the job content of our employees. the second change concerns operational aspects. one of the eurosystem's basic operating principles is a high degree of decentralisation. our ncbs remain the contact points between financial institutions or economic agents of our countries and the eurosystem. however, the concept of decentralisation has evolved since the eurosystem was first formed. to quote the words of the eurosystem's mission statement : " we are committed to good governance and to performing our tasks effectively and efficiently, in a spirit of cooperation and team work ". this is further elaborated in the organisational principles, which state " that potential synergies and economies of scale shall be identified