a thorough plan of action with clearly identified roles and responsibilities in the event of cyber incidents is a must in today ’ s environment. 10. the old adage, prevention is better than cure applies to cyber security as well. banks need to have a robust defence mechanism against cyber incidents at all times. however, our observation is that many a times, certain finer details such as configuration of devices, patch management, oem supported software, password management or port management, are ignored or entirely left to the vendors resulting in an undesirable impact. statistics suggest that it takes on an average about 6 months to detect cyber - attacks by outsiders and longer in cases where attacks 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches are by insiders. thus, early detection and response assumes significant importance. banks need to build capabilities to detect cyber - attacks early and respond to them quickly. recovery from the incident is another aspect that needs to be well thought out. 11. the world has learnt that in dealing with cyber - attacks, awareness and sharing of information plays an important role. knowledge on cyber related aspects is relevant for all the stakeholders including the board members. we often observe that this key premise is ignored. 12. rbi has mandated that all unusual cyber - incidents have to be reported within 2 to 6 hours invariably. we observe that banks take much longer time in reporting the incident. once reported, the results of root cause analysis as well as findings of forensic audit also need to be shared promptly. you would appreciate that timely reporting of cyber incidents is very crucial to enable issuance of suitable cautionary advisories to other banks. 13. in a nutshell, all stakeholders must work collectively to guard and fight against the menace of cyber threat. to quote our prime minister, “ i dream of a digital india where : cyber security becomes an integral part of our national security1 ” yes, when such message comes from the highest authority in the country, we need no further stimulus for action. i am sure that this program will leave you with many takeaways and enable you to be a change agent within your respective institutions for securing the it infrastructure as well as for educating the customers on how to avoid becoming a victim of fraud. 14. before i move beyond the cyberspace and talk about other frauds, let me mention three issues related to cyber security that i wish the participants to deliberate upon during the course of the seminar and one issue for the policy makers to ponder over. a. the rate at which technology

xolile p guma : south africa ’ s macroprudential policy framework and economic overview introductory remarks by dr xolile p guma, deputy governor of the south african reserve bank, at the launch of the march 2010 financial stability review, pretoria, 28 april 2010. * * * members of the press, other guests and colleagues, the financial stability department has existed since 2001, its task being to identify possible threats to financial stability and suggest ways in which these could be mitigated. in pursuit of this objective the department, on behalf of the bank, publishes the financial stability review semi - annually. today the bank releases the march 2010 edition of this publication. following the international financial crisis, the financial stability responsibilities of various central banks have become more explicit. the financial crisis has demonstrated, in general, that, although microprudential supervision makes a valuable and indispensable contribution to financial stability, it may be insufficient on its own to ensure systemic financial stability. for this reason, a macroprudential approach to policy formulation is necessary to complement microprudential supervision, and in fact monetary policy. the aim of such a policy would be to smooth the impact of the economic cycle on the financial system and contain the build - up of systemic risks in the financial system as a whole. the bank is, therefore, currently in the process of developing an integrated framework for a macroprudential policy approach to achieve its financial stability objective, and to help co - ordinate financial stability policy of other authorities. the global financial crisis has also led to wide - ranging debate on the need to enhance the international regulatory framework in order to strengthen the global financial system and improve its resilience to shocks. the proposals for reform have gone beyond banking sectors and have been expanded to include insurance industries, rating agencies, hedge funds and accounting standards. since the release of the september 2009 financial stability review, the risks to global financial stability have eased and systemic risks have continued to subside as the global economic recovery has gained momentum. the recovery has been instrumental in moderating earlier high levels of uncertainty. financial stability, nevertheless, remains to some extent, fragile in many economies, including those emerging - market economies hardest hit by the crisis. advanced economies, in particular, are still faced with the challenge of repairing damaged financial systems, on the one hand, and introducing regulatory reform, on the other. relatively conservative monetary and fiscal policies and structural reforms before the global financial crisis have helped many