to the financial reforms, following the 2008 global financial crisis, that were coordinated through the fsb. however, there is no room for complacency. financial institutions and market participants have not experienced sharply rising interest rates for a long time. very low interest rates may have become embedded in business models, making the adjustment to a world of higher rates challenging. companies and households that have borrowed money will also need to adjust to higher interest payments, and problems may materialise only with a lag. so, we need to remain vigilant. a deterioration of banks'asset quality may still occur, and other vulnerabilities, like the ones on today's agenda, need to be monitored closely. some of these vulnerabilities may have been previously prevented from materialising by authorities'covid - 19 support measures. but now these measures are being lifted. so it is important to address debt overhang issues of non - financial corporates, and to respond to potential issues of underinvestment due to excessive indebtedness or misallocation of resources to unviable companies. all of these are what i would call cyclical vulnerabilities. but, more fundamentally, we also need to be wary of vulnerabilities that stem from structural shifts in the global financial system. 3 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches so allow me to say a few words on three structural shifts that the fsb is currently focusing on, and the associated vulnerabilities. it is, of course, no coincidence that the topics of today's panels overlap with many of the fsb's priorities. first – the structural shift in the provision of finance from banks to non - banks. in our global monitoring report on non - bank financial intermediation, from december 2022, we highlighted that the nbfi sector reached 239 trillion us dollars in 2021. if a number on that scale is hard to put into context, a more telling figure is perhaps that the nbfi sector increased its relative share of total global financial assets to 49 % in 2021, compared with 42 % in 2008. almost half of all global financial assets are now being intermediated by non - banks. while diversifying the sources of credit can make the global economy more resilient, the growth in nbfi has exposed important vulnerabilities in the non - bank sector. we have seen the problems that these vulnerabilities can cause several times in recent

transparency from banks. i cannot see why global audit firms should be allowed to be any less accountable than listed companies in the united states or europe. this includes openness about partners ’ income. ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude. in 1994, i concluded my phd on auditor independence by stating that, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the ability to withstand pressure. that this is what matters most for the auditor ’ s reputation of integrity, and that without integrity auditors cannot exist. we have learnt a hard lesson from enron in that not only auditors ( or auditing firms ) can be threatened in their existence. we are all on call. there is a need to restore the ethos of public service, whether we are auditors, bankers, analysts, regulators or executives. in fact it matters to all players in the broad area of corporate governance. we all have a license from society to operate, as long as we adhere to essential ethics of public responsibility. thank you.