we have done this because we have an abiding commitment to consider how our decisions affect institutions and the customers they serve. we are well aware that community banks serve communities, businesses, and households that are often underserved by larger institutions and offer more extensive and more personalized services than are often otherwise available. we know that community bankers are part of the communities they serve, and they are often better able to understand the needs and the aspirations of their customers. we hope that the research presented at this conference stimulates discussion about the leading policy issues facing the industry and supervisors. as in the past, i see that this year ’ s agenda includes presentations related to several important issues, including the effect of supervision on risk - tasking and the effects of greater competition on community banks. i am cheered to see that finance students at the university of akron remain interested enough in community banking to participate in a case - study competition related to community banking, and i am pleased that the conference will hear a presentation of the winning case study. in closing, let me thank the conference organizers with the fed and the conference of state bank supervisors, the scholars and others making presentations, and all of you for attending. i hope you have a terrific conference. 1 / 1 bis central bankers'speeches

, middleincome countries benefited from the introduction of the more favourable houston terms in 1990. when it became clear that even the more concessional debt rescheduling and reduction mechanisms were still not sufficient to attain sustainable external debt levels, particularly in a number of african low - income countries, another key policy initiative was launched in 1996 by the imf and the world bank : the heavily indebted poor countries initiative ( hipc ). under this initiative, the entire international community, including some multilateral institutions, decided to take coordinated action to reduce the debt burdens of eligible countries to sustainable levels. in this context, paris club creditors agreed to increase the reduction in the net present value of eligible debt up to 80 % under the lyon terms and, in 2000, up to 90 % or even more under the cologne terms. the financial implications of these decisions were substantial : around 36 % of the initiative ’ s total cost, amounting to usd 38 billion thus far, has been borne by paris club creditors. finally, the hipc initiative has been supplemented in 2005 by the multilateral debt relief initiative, which allows for 100 % debt relief by multilateral institutions for countries completing the hipc process. this marked a major break with the principle of preferred creditor status of international financial institutions. looking at the most recent past of the paris club, another development worth noting is that the number of countries rescheduling with paris club creditors has been declining significantly. besides the more general macroeconomic developments i recalled at the beginning of this talk, this desirable trend is also due to two more specific developments : first, the more comprehensive debt stock treatment of low income countries ; and second, a graduation from rescheduling of most middle - income countries as a result of the implementation of economic reforms that have increased their access to market financing and thus private creditors. indeed, while official flows to emerging markets were dominant in the 1980s, reaching on average over 60 % of total flows, the 1990s saw a dramatic increase in private flows, which on average accounted for around 85 % in the period from 1990 until 2003. accordingly, the paris club has been paying increasing attention to coordination with private sector creditors. in particular, early discussions can be scheduled when the proportion of private external debt is deemed significant and when comparability of treatment is an issue. also, interaction between paris club creditors and private sector representatives can be initiated if private creditors indicate their willingness to help restore debt sustainability in good faith and if a