have committed to improve the risk - weighted capital requirements ; to establish countercyclical capital buffers ; and to introduce a global liquidity standard as well as a leverage ratio that will supplement risk - weighted capital requirements. could you elaborate a little further on these issues? what will be the implications for financial institutions? first, financial institutions will have to raise the quality, consistency and transparency of capital. tier 1 capital should be predominantly composed of common shares and retained earnings to increase its loss - absorbing capacity. a common definition of capital and appropriate disclosure of its components will be internationally established. this will contribute to increased transparency and comparability. second, a framework of countercyclical capital buffers above the minimum requirement will be introduced. the basel committee will set up appropriate indicators for the build - up and release of these buffers. measures for the conservation of capital will also be considered, such as constraints on its distribution. third, a non risk - based leverage ratio will supplement risk - based capital requirements and help to curb excessive balance sheet growth. to ensure the comparability of the leverage ratio at the global level, necessary adjustments, for instance in accounting rules, will be made. fourth, banks will be subject to a minimum global standard for funding liquidity. this new standard will include a stressed liquidity coverage ratio that will be underpinned by a longerterm structural liquidity ratio. finally, there is one more very important issue that i would like to mention. this issue is compensation. the g20 leaders endorsed the financial stability board ’ s implementation standards to align compensation with prudent risk - taking and long - term performance. the basel committee has set up a network of senior supervisors to monitor the implementation of these standards. as discussions around bank bonuses resurface, it is of the utmost importance that banks implement these standards immediately, and in time for the 2009 bonuses. i urge supervisors to ensure timely and consistent implementation. and once again i urge banks to behave responsibly in this respect and resist short - term temptation. we all have to be conscious that in the current episode, profit developments in individual institutions cannot be seen in isolation from the very large public support granted to the financial system as a whole. president trichet, are you satisfied with the results of regulation so far? yes, i am quite satisfied with the progress but the proof of the matter of course lies in the implementation. the far - reaching measures being developed by the basel committee under the

with other reforms and the enabling conditions in the economy today are designed to better anchor inflationary expectations, strengthen public confidence in the naira, make for easier conversion to other currencies, reverse tendency for currency substitution, eliminate higher denomination notes with lower value, reduce the cost of production, distribution and processing of currency, promote the usage of coins and thus a more efficient pricing and payments system, and lay the foundation for the convertibility of the naira as well as make it the “ reference currency ” in africa. the african union has granted nigeria the right to host the headquarters of the african central bank when the common currency in africa materializes. we must therefore lead the way in terms of properly aligned currency structure and sound monetary policy framework. several countries in the world have undertaken currency re - denomination at various times and for different reasons, including : afghanistan ( 2002 ) ; germany ( 1923, 1948 ) ; argentina ( 1970 ; 1983 ; 1985 ; 1992 ) ; bolivia ( 1963, 1987 ) ; brazil ( 1967, 1970, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994 ) ; china ( 1955 ) ; south korea ( 1962 ) ; mexico ( 1993, 1996 ) ; ghana ( 2007 ) ; israel ( 1948, 1960, 1980, 1985 ) ; turkey ( 2005 ) ; angola ( 1995, 1999 ) ; and others. evidently, many countries have had to undertake the re - denomination more than once. in the case of brazil, it had to do it many times before it got it right. the major challenge is to undertake other complementary reforms, particularly macroeconomic reforms that will underpin price stability and continuing confidence in the economy. this is where we believe nigeria ’ s experience is likely to be different from others, having learnt from the experiences of other countries. consequently, as necessary complements to the currency re - denomination, we intend to introduce three additional measures : • adoption of inflation - targeting framework for the conduct of monetary policy • sharing part of the federation account in us dollars to deepen the forex market and for liquidity management • current account liberalization / convertibility and accession to article viii of the imf. b : adoption of inflation - targeting framework for the conduct of monetary policy : to commence from january 1, 2009 in the light of the new mandate as contained in the new cbn act ( 2007 ) urging the cbn to “ ensure monetary and price stability ” as well as the need to provide a transparent, credible framework to lock - in inflationary expectations, the cbn