’ day 2013. on 6 july 2012, danmarks nationalbank reduced the rate of interest on certificates of deposit to minus 0. 2 per. in other words, banks and mortgage banks must pay to hold liquidity at danmarks nationalbank ; a situation that is unique in both a historical and an international context. subsequently the rate of interest on certificates of deposit has been raised to the current level of minus 0. 1 per cent. in recent years, pressure on the krone has entailed preventing it from strengthening. that is, undeniably, more pleasant than having to support a weakening currency. in the last few months, long - term interest rates in particular have begun to rise again, and the danish yield spread to the euro area is no longer negative. we have known all along that interest rates would normalise at some point, but as long as this simply means that our neighbouring economies are recovering, it is not a problem. i have talked about the importance of credible economic policy. this crisis has emphasised the need for credibility – at both macro and micro level. in denmark, several banks had managements who were over - optimistic when it came to calculating the need for loan impairment charges. roskilde bank and tønder bank are sad examples. both of these banks are history now. i realise that the concept of credibility is not unknown to auditors. the whole purpose of audits is to ensure confidence in the information provided in the financial statements, so that investors and other stakeholders may trust the information – and make informed decisions. the auditors perform an important task as the trusted representatives of society. this task is also of significance to the macroeconomy as it helps to reduce uncertainty about the figures, thereby facilitating capital and credit flows. but trust in auditors has also been shaken a little by the financial crisis. several legal investigations of the banks that have been wound up question the quality of the audits performed. and in several cases the government - owned winding - up company, the financial stability company, has raised claims against the external auditors for non - compliance with bis central bankers ’ speeches good audit practice. i am not going to anticipate the outcome of these cases, but – even if they relate to only a few black sheep – they have a negative impact on the general reputation and credibility of auditors. as a result, confidence in the financial statements may be eroded. as always, the authorities respond by introducing more regulation. in denmark

nils bernstein : central banking at a crossroads – europe and beyond introduction by mr nils bernstein, governor of the national bank of denmark, to the diis ( danish institute for international studies ) conference “ central banking at a crossroads – europe and beyond ”, copenhagen, 29 january 2013. * * * i have been given the privilege by diis to open this conference, and i would like to welcome you all to the conference of “ central banking at a crossroads : europe and beyond ”. a special welcome to our foreign guests. * * * central banking has undergone major changes over the last half decade. the financial crisis, which began in 2007 and escalated into a worldwide financial and macroeconomic crisis in the autumn of 2008, has in many ways been a game changer. not least in terms of the way in which central banks operate. old paradigms and truths have fallen, and new, in many cases untested, monetary - policy measures have been introduced. with monetary - policy interest rates close to zero – and in denmark ’ s case even below zero – “ quantitative easing ” has become, well perhaps not exactly a household term, but at any rate part of the vocabulary of educated citizens. with the latest unconventional measure in the form of the ecb ’ s outright monetary transactions, and soon also a single european supervisory mechanism for banks, under the auspices of the ecb, the division between central banking and other policy measures has become less clear - cut. how this will work out in practice remains to be seen. after years of crisis fighting – with low growth, stubborn unemployment figures and increasing government debt levels, it is being discussed if central banks have come to the limits of their capacities and governments left to design and implement political difficult structural reforms? one observation is that it is remarkable what the ecb has achieved in recent six months, fighting the european debt crisis by declaring what it intends to do under certain circumstances without actively having done it yet. the first workshop is about “ bank resolution in a comparative perspective ”. this is a very topical issue. in denmark – as in many other countries – we had been used to handling distressed banks on a case - by - case basis. no two cases were identical, and the approach differed each time. just before the collapse of lehman brothers in september 2008, denmark ’ s 9th largest bank – roskilde bank – became distressed. it had already been attracting the attention of the authorities for some time. as in previous cases where banks failed, the