sarah bloom raskin : let ’ s move forward – the case for timely implementation of revised capital rules speech by ms sarah bloom raskin, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the ohio bankers day, columbus, ohio, 6 june 2013. * * * the views in these remarks are my own and not necessarily those of my colleagues on the federal reserve board. good morning and thank you to the ohio department of commerce division of financial institutions ( dfi ) for the invitation to come to columbus to share some thoughts with you on ohio bankers day. in my remarks this morning, i want to describe some features of an appropriate regulatory capital framework for banks – focusing on community banks – and i ’ ll cut to the chase by setting out what i believe to be two imperatives in finalizing this framework. each of these imperatives has, at its core, the inherent goals of minimizing uncertainty and promoting safety and soundness. these imperatives are timeliness and simplicity. to explain why timeliness – by which i mean timely implementation of final capital rules in the united states – and simplicity are imperative, it helps to set the stage. and to do that, i have to go back in time. way back, in fact, to when i was a child growing up in a small town in illinois, just minutes away from the indiana border. there was no bank in our town, but there was one in the next town over, which was where my family and our neighbors would do their banking. the bank probably had no more than $ 30 million in assets. on saturday mornings, my mother ( who essentially was the cfo of the family financial unit ) would toss me in the back seat of the car and drive over to deposit my parents ’ paychecks, which, in those days before atms, meant visiting a teller. if there were no checks to deposit, saturday morning would be when my mother would go to withdraw cash for the week. “ get in this line, ” my mother would order. “ we want shirley. ” sometimes, we would end with a visit to the vault. to my seven - year - old self, going to the vault was deadly serious, a ritual that began by signing in with a stern - looking man who held the keys. it felt like entering a cave and looking at gold, although in retrospect i suspect my mother was only checking on insurance policies or her passbook savings. after the vault,

authority or mandate. our core strategic objectives which represent essential elements of our mission shall continue to evolve around developing capital markets and enhancing stakeholder confidence ; providing a quality, professional supervisory and regulatory service ; ensuring the existence of an all inclusive and regulated financial sector ; and fostering a competitive, cost effective environment in the financial industry. the aim is to safeguard the financial sector and facilitate economic development through broadening and deepening of the capital market. in order to enhance the regulation and supervision of capital markets in line with international developments and standards, the reserve bank initiated the formulation of a new legislation, the draft securities bill. the bill intends to repeal the capital market development act no 17 of 1990 ( cmda ) which is considered to be less comprehensive in terms of coverage. the bill is currently awaiting enactment by parliament. these legislative reforms including the “ retirement funds bill ” will provide an opportunity for new and extra resources in the securities market that will require your expertise to tap them on. mr. chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the coming in of an additional player onto the market will bring competition, increase trading activity and improve price discovery which is an important function of an organized stock market. african alliance securities ltd brings with them a dimension of “ research ” on the listed companies, which appears to be one of their fundamental skills, which has been erratic on the market. thus we believe that credible and high quality research will keep investors more informed about the opportunities on the stock market and therefore stimulate well informed trading activity. we expect healthy competition whose benefits will trickle down to the investors and consumers of financial services. mr chairman, ladies and gentlemen, before i end my speech, let me take this opportunity to express a concern. last year ( 2008 ), the reserve bank received reports of fraud relating to share certificates allegedly perpetrated by senior members of the brokerage houses. clearly, the reports tarnished the image of the market. while the market did not suffer severe damage, we wish to advise all players to ensure that there are internal controls within your institutions, to adhere to best corporate governance standards and to ensure that procedures are followed when handling clients ’ funds. let me appeal to african alliance and all other market professionals to continually invest in their employees to ensure high standards in the market. lastly, but not least, i wish to advise all capital market professionals to timely comply with the requirements of the capital market development act and its subsidiary legislation. mr chairman, ladies and gentlemen, with these few remarks, i wish to