how good a firm's governance and risk management is. so it is critical that organisations are proactively attending to their culture and governance in the good times, to ensure they stand the test in the bad times. in this regard, boards should focus on ensuring their organisation has the right people, expertise, and experience – as well as the systems, processes and governance structures in place to run a firm well. it is about ensuring your firm is acting prudently, doing the right thing by your customers or investors and proactively scanning the horizon for potential new risks. this does not just happen throughout an organisation – but rather it takes time, thought, investment and commitment from senior leaders to deliver, along with a clear setting of culture and expectations by the board – who, as i said, play a key role from the topdown in ensuring accountability and driving the right culture in their businesses. necessary but not sufficient now, i have spoken of the important role governance, culture and risk management plays in successful firms. but while these things are necessary, and i would say fundamental, they are not sufficient. the right business model and the right strategic planning is also key. ones which recognise the risks, seize the opportunities, and indeed understand that there are risks from not taking some opportunities. steering the business model and strategic direction of the organisation is of course a core focus of boards and directors. so with this in mind, this brings me to a final point : what makes a good director? in the first instance i will bow to the iod, where they note a director should be capable of seeing company and business issues in a broad perspective, can bring a good degree of objectivity and can play a vital role in monitoring executive management and seek to ensure prudent control is exercised. 6 in addition to this good summation, i will add some of my own views on the key attributes for a director. it goes without saying that a good director needs to be strategic – both in the directionsetting for the organisation, but also in terms of your own contribution – what are you influencing and affecting ; what are you picking up? they need to be inquisitive. while knowing what you bring to the table is important, so too is the curiosity to ask questions and to probe for answers. this is particularly true for ineds, who need to verify and seek evidence – part of the independence they bring and ensuring they hold the board and senior management to account. 4

to ensure it is future - ready. as i have said before, " the code is a cornerstone of consumer protection in financial services in ireland, establishing a set of rules and expectations for how firms should treat their customers and has allowed the central bank to intervene to protect consumers. " the changes we have proposed build on the existing code, reflecting the provision of financial services in a digital world. 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches we have had very active and important engagement with stakeholders on the code, with feedback coming through from across industry, civil society and other government agencies and regulators, as well as from the minister for finance. the feedback we have received has been broadly positive with many stakeholders welcoming the proposals. we are aiming to publish the revised code early in the new year. when implemented, consumers will benefit from a package of protections that reflect how they are accessing financial services today. regulated firms will benefit from a clearer articulation of their code obligations. as you know, we are also making changes to our supervisory model, which we will begin to implement in january. the new model remains risk - based, but is evolving to deliver a more integrated approach drawing on all elements of our mandate ( consumer and investor protection, safety and soundness, financial stability and integrity of the system ). this enhanced approach is based on accumulated experience, on insight, on best practice and is built for a faster moving and more complex financial services sector. firms will hear one consistent voice from the bank, with more coordinated messaging and more streamlined demands across the full span of our regulatory and supervisory mandate. we will promote a more open and transparent supervisory approach. to enable and implement our new supervisory framework we need the right operational approach and organisational structure. we are moving to an organisational structure where our regulatory and supervisory directorates will have teams responsible for integrated supervision across all our regulatory outcomes. importantly, our supervisory model will place consumer protection at the heart of day - today supervision. it will position us better as an organisation to meet our objectives to ensure consumers of financial services are protected in this changing financial landscape, as highlighted by the oecd report. this is why this review by the oecd is so important, as it provides us with recommendations and insights that will support our ambition to transform and will be incorporated into our transformed supervisory approach. the oecd's assessment that the central bank is operating in line with the high level principles is very positive. we also welcome the recommendations on how