of financial stability matters, should further enhance the regulatory system which already is highly regarded internationally. if we look back only to 1990, the central bank ’ s regulatory responsibility extended to some 50 credit institutions. over a dozen years, this responsibility has grown to cover almost 3000 diverse financial entities and a further 3000 collective investment schemes. the new bill will add further to these numbers. this will pose additional challenges for the bank and indeed for me personally. i am looking forward to overseeing the successful implementation of the new legislation and to working with all interested parties to ensure that we achieve the best possible outcome. if my first four weeks in office are anything to go by, i can expect a very interesting and challenging period as governor of the central bank. during my time as governor, i also hope to get to know a lot of you better than i do today. thank you for your attention.

and it has obviously been an area which has received a lot of my attention in my first weeks : you could say that i have had a somewhat concentrated learning experience. the bank ’ s supervisory function has been expanding at a very rapid rate in recent years. in 1995, the supervision function comprised two departments with a total staff of 64. today the staff complement is approaching 220 and is organised in five departments. a financial services policy committee has been established to ensure co - ordination amongst the various supervision departments. the bank is now responsible for the regulation of banks, stockbrokers, collective investment schemes, larger investment firms and investment and insurance intermediaries. the bank has also reorganised its supervisory functions because of our increased involvement with the retail sector and is putting increasing emphasis on consumer protection and education. most recently, the bank assumed responsibility for the supervision of around 2, 500 insurance intermediaries, which represented an almost fivefold increase in the number of investment firms regulated by the bank. the cost of the supervisory function now comprises nearly half the total costs of the non - currency activities of the bank. this exponential rate of growth of functions has resulted in a steep learning curve for all concerned. in recent years, the bank has also been attempting to increase the skills mix of professional regulators and staff have been recruited from various backgrounds including the garda fraud squad, the insurance and collective investment scheme sectors and the market risk area. these skills complemented those of our existing professional regulators who had backgrounds in accountancy, economics and law. other areas where there have been recent innovations include : the introduction of new codes of conduct and practice both for the banking industry and for retail intermediaries which provide for the disclosure of relevant information to customers ; the refinement of the application form for directors and managers which assists the bank in assessing the competence and probity of persons proposed for those positions ; refinement of detailed rules relating to the handling of client assets ; the increase ( insofar as the law permits ) of communication channels with various relevant bodies including the revenue commissioners, the director of consumer affairs, the competition authority, and the director of corporate enforcement ; the continuation of stress - testing for credit institutions to explore their ability to withstand economic shocks ; increased communication with auditors of regulated entities ; and, the improvement of the authorisation process for collective investment schemes. i will elaborate a little on the last three points. stress tests the potential risks to the global and domestic economies raise the question of