would expect the energy and dynamism released by the catching - up process to percolate through to the rest of the eu, not least as a catalyst in creating a more competitive environment and in hastening structural reform. enlargement on this scale is unique, and we in ireland, who currently occupy the presidency of the eu, are privileged to have enlargement on our agenda. conclusion the first five years of emu can be considered a success. more than three hundred million consumers and investors in the euro area have enjoyed the benefits of price stability, low nominal interest rates in a single money market and the convenience of dealing in a single currency over a wide geographic area. by maintaining price stability, monetary policy provides the basis for sustainable growth in output and employment. but, for growth to materialise, the active support of fiscal policy and structural reform is also required. i believe that there is a growing awareness across the euro area of the need for both to play their part in addressing current problems and to prepare for the coming challenge, especially that of ageing populations. i expect these issues to be centre stage over the next five years.

##ence we are all operating in an increasingly complex environment, with a greater and greater degree of reliance on technology, an exponential growth in data, continuous change, increasingly 3 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches organisation complexity – including through outsourcing. all of these factors increase operational risk, and the need for greater resilience in our processes, people and systems. system resilience and cyber security threats are acute. risks can crystallize instantly and catastrophically. the evidence from our onsite it risk inspections is that much more needs to be done to manage this risk. for all of you, it is a question of when, not if, so you need to not only reduce the risk of occurrence but have advanced plans for how you will deal with the risk crystallising. to take outsourcing as another example, while there are strong business benefits from successful outsourcing, it does bring additional complexity into the system. it may be more difficult to get a co - ordinated response when issues arise and to get separate firms, perhaps unregulated, to operate in a co - ordinated manner during a time of stress. the firms may have conflicting responsibilities between their own stakeholders. you need to be satisfied, and to be able to demonstrate, that this additional complexity is being managed and mitigated. ( iv ) governance & risk management as i have already alluded to, we are living in an increasingly complex, fast moving and challenging world. successfully meeting these challenges requires effective leadership, governance and risk management. it is therefore of serious concern that, in too many cases, the implementation and embedding of effective governance arrangements and risk management frameworks in irish financial services firms is not sufficiently robust. more than one third of the largest firms ( prism impact high or medium high ) have significant issues, which require remediation in order to bring governance arrangements within our supervisory risk appetite. this needs to change. as does the culture in many firms – not just the retail banks. we expect institutions to critically evaluate their culture, considering what type of culture they want to develop, how staff are incentivised to behave, and to be held to account as to whether the culture they want is the culture they have and how would they know if it is not. we will also be stepping up our work from a diversity and inclusion perspective – linked to our work on culture. it will increasingly feature in our ongoing supervision and inspection work, supported by analytics