. but we must also all recognise that there will be cases where this may not possible. market - based finance the emerging risk i want to mention is the growing size of the market - based finance sector, both here in ireland but also across the world. the relative size of the sector in ireland to the domestic economy is among the largest globally and it has a predominantly international focus. it is dominated by investment funds and money market funds, which account for around two - thirds of total assets. market - based finance provides a valuable alternative to bank financing for many businesses and households, supporting economic activity. but these activities may also give rise to financial vulnerabilities, which need to be understood, monitored and addressed. 4 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches because of this, yesterday i announced that we are going to build on recent work in this area and conduct a deep dive on property funds to assess the resilience of this growing form of marketbased finance. we will also consider whether there is a need for macroprudential policies to strengthen the resilience of this growing form of finance to the domestic economy and we will continue to work on these issues with our colleagues in europe and in global fora. conclusion i have sought to give you a whistle - stop tour of the principal issues being dealt with by the central bank, together with some of my own reflections. i ’ d like to conclude by saying something about the global economy, on the risks that it faces currently and how i believe we here in ireland should look to manage them. in its latest forecasts, the imf signalled a slowdown in global growth, driven by “ rising trade and geopolitical tensions that have increased uncertainty about the future of the global trading system and international cooperation more generally, taking a toll on business confidence, investment decisions, and global trade ". 1 this uncertainty comes at a time when economies have started to enter significant transitions, driven by developments in technology, in demography, and in the environment, to name three. a particular characteristic of these transitions is the pace of change. we need to meet these challenges by building resilience across the economy, in the financial services sector and most importantly in households across the country. we should continue to focus on the fundamentals, managing the short term while planning for the medium term, ensuring our frameworks are fit - for - purpose and learning the lessons of the past while preparing for the future. successful economies need stable and sustainable macro

remained at roughly 30 % over the past twenty years. 9 10 in the uk today, less than 30 % of undergraduate economics students are women. furthermore, economics graduates are also disproportionately privately educated. 11 this highlights the need for a diverse pool of qualified people to fill decision and policy making roles. but it is not only the gender balance in businesses, policymakers and prospective decision makers – we also need to think of data. as an economist, a central banker, we base our policies and our decisions on evidence, and diversity should be no different. one of the standout books i read last year was “ invisible women ” by caroline criado perez. 12 the book highlights the importance of gender based data to better understand the world around us, how it informs areas from policy or product design, to health trials. through thought provoking and at times shocking examples ; she illustrates the implications of designing policy or products for all, based on data for men. she shows for example that women in britain are fifty per cent more likely to be misdiagnosed following a heart attack : heart failure trials mainly use male participants. a key takeaway point for me, was not only the need to fill data gaps but also to reflect on how data is used in policy design. that having more diverse planners, decision makers and policymakers should lead to a world better designed to reflect our population. the how … so how can we get to a place with diverse boards and decision makers, where policy is both designed and challenged in its very design by diverse policymakers, to the very students taking on economics studies. let me start with what we can do as regulators. in 2017, the central bank of ireland started to publish data on the level of gender diversity at senior levels of regulated firms and we have committed to publishing this data on an annual basis. 13 we were the first regulator to publish data on fitness and probity applications with a diversity lens. we analyse the applications received by the central bank for pre - approval for senior roles across sectors we regulate, including banking, insurance, asset management, securities and markets, and credit unions, for example. building on these data, we carried out a review of the approach to diversity policies of regulated firms and introduced requirements for regulated firms subject to our corporate governance code to have diversity policies. we are trying to nudge behaviour towards a new improved norm, by being very clear on what we expect to see in such policies. when