from arguing with each other. that i thing is wise because the system is rather fragile. let me conclude by referring back to my opening remarks. the financial markets are becoming increasingly integrated, banks are crossing more and more boundaries and so on. all this is affecting the riksbank to a high degree. the same is true of the rapid technical innovations, with increasingly complex payment systems. add to this the possibility of emu and you can see the future does not lack challenges. apropos of what i have been talking about today, a while ago one of my american colleagues, bill mcdonough, said something to this effect : we should be pleased if we are better today than we were yesterday at the same time as we are not yet as capable as we will be tomorrow. i think that's about right.

differently, with other methods. studies show that in recent decades the work of reforming central banks has tended to follow a clear pattern. a report from bis, the central bank of the central banks, notes the following characteristics. · the move to greater independence and the commitment to price stability entail a desire to focus on core operations and a deeper analysis. there is also a greater need to operate and communicate in ways that are effective and enhance confidence. · internationalisation also has effects, not least financial integration. for sweden there is also membership of the european union and possibly of emu. · analytical requirements are heightened in general. matters are becoming increasingly complex. another factor here is the new technologies with electronic payment systems, for example. · in our case there is also the crisis in the early 1990s and the lessons we have tried to learn from it. i shall now say something about the work we have done in recent years in three respects : concentrating on cores activities ; strength and security ; and management with an executive board. concentrating on core activities a good performance presupposes that we concentrate our resources to what is really important. the starting - point here is, of course, our main statutory functions, namely to maintain price stability and promote a safe and efficient payment system. for three hundred years the riksbank has owned a paper mill and a note - printing works in tumba and a mint in eskilstuna. these are largely manufacturing operations. through the tumba works, in the past decade the riksbank has been active in export markets and produced banknotes on behalf of a number of countries. besides manufacturing notes and coins, we distribute them. like mcdonalds and the food chains, we send our products, wrapped in plastic though not deep - frozen, to everywhere in sweden. in our case the security requirements are, of course, considerably higher. but is this really something we should be doing? at the riksbank we decided it was not. our job is to concentrate in the first place on monetary policy and the difficult systemic questions in the financial world. we have therefore decided to sell the tumba works. in our opinion, the enterprise deserves owners that are more professional than the riksbank. moreover, our distribution system has been transformed into a limited company, pengar i sverige ab ( psab ), literally, money in sweden limited. a major reconstruction has been completed and we now count on being able to sell the company at a good