meeting their mortgage obligations, including identifying and contacting borrowers before they enter delinquency or foreclosure. federal reserve banks around the country are cooperating with community and industry groups that work with borrowers and affected communities. we also continue to work with organizations that provide counseling about mortgage products to current and potential homeowners. studies suggest that counseling can be effective in helping borrowers make better financial decisions. 3 in addition, we at the federal reserve, other regulators, and the congress are evaluating what actions may be needed to prevent a recurrence of these problems. in deciding, we must walk a fine line : we have an obligation to prevent fraud and abusive lending ; at the same time, we must tread carefully so as not to suppress responsible lending or eliminate refinancing opportunities for subprime borrowers. broadly speaking, financial regulators have four types of tools to protect consumers and to promote safe and sound underwriting practices : required disclosures by lenders, rules to prohibit abusive or deceptive practices, principles - based guidance with supervisory oversight, and less - formal efforts to work with industry participants to promote best practices. the federal reserve currently is conducting a thorough review of its policies with respect to each of these instruments. estimates of delinquencies are based on data from first american loanperformance. issuance data are from inside mortgage finance. see, for example, abdighani hirad and peter m. zorn ( 2001 ), “ a little knowledge is a good thing : empirical evidence of the effectiveness of pre - purchase homeownership counseling, ” and gregory elliehausen, e. christopher lundquist, and michael e. staten ( 2003 ), " the impact of credit counseling on subsequent borrower credit usage and payment behavior, " papers presented at “ seeds of growth – sustainable community development : what works, what doesn ’ t and why?, ” a federal reserve system community affairs research conference held in washington, d. c., march 27 - 28, 2003. effective disclosures are the first line of defense against improper lending. if consumers are well informed, they are in a much better position to make decisions in their own best interest. to fulfill its responsibilities under the truth - in - lending act ( tila ), the board has undertaken a full review of consumer disclosures for mortgage lending. for example, we are considering whether to require lenders to provide certain disclosures more quickly and are evaluating existing requirements concerning the

, particularly in the services sectors, would also facilitate the restructuring of the economy and encourage innovation. such measures are crucial for enhancing productivity growth, which is one of the main drivers of long - term growth. all these structural reforms should be supported by the necessary improvements in the structure of the banking sector. sound balance sheets, effective risk management and transparent, robust business models remain key to strengthening banks ’ resilience to shocks and to ensuring adequate access to finance, thereby laying the foundations for sustainable growth and financial stability. we are now at your disposal for questions. bis central bankers ’ speeches