christian noyer : “ the brussels agreement is sound ” – interview with le telegramme interview with mr christian noyer, governor of the bank of france and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, in le telegramme, published on 15 december 2011. * * * does the brussels agreement protect the euro area over the long term? i believe it is a sound agreement. it includes rules of governance that had been missing up until now. of course, we had the stability and growth pact, but it was of an inadequate legal standard, and it was not complied with as it should have been. setting up clear rules of governance that are sound in substance and that will be integrated into the constitutions and organic laws of member states is a good solution that should provide us with lasting protection. what would be the consequences of france losing its triple - a rating? i do not know what rating agencies will do. what i see is that these agencies have managed, through their criticisms, to weaken the positive sentiment that prevailed on markets after the brussels summit. in addition, downgrading france ’ s credit rating does not seem justified when considering economic fundamentals. otherwise agencies should start by downgrading the united kingdom which has larger deficits, the same level of debt, more inflation and a lower growth rate than us as well as slumping credit. what is the legitimacy of these rating agencies? agencies have become totally incomprehensible and irrational. they make threats, even though member states have taken strong and positive decisions. rating agencies behave as if nothing had happened. it may seem that agencies are no longer a useful guide for investors. would you say that their judgments are based on political criteria? indeed, in the arguments they develop, there are more political arguments than economic ones. credit agencies have downgraded the ratings of three large french banks. are our banks undercapitalised? no, they are very well capitalised, in particular compared to their european and us counterparts. the importance of this downgrade should not be overstated especially since rating agencies have recently downgraded most large banks in developed countries. there is no doubt that the capital buffers of our banks are largely adequate in relation to levels in the global banking system. it is true that we are asking them to enhance their soundness in order to meet the new regulatory requirements that have been agreed at the european and global level. banks are doing this through their own resources and needless to say

mark w olson : home mortgage disclosure act testimony by mr mark w olson, member of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, before the subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer credit, committee on financial services, us house of representatives, washington dc, 13 june 2006. * * * chairman bachus, representative sanders, and members of the subcommittee, i am pleased to be here to discuss the uses and significance of the home loan data that are collected, reported, and publicly disclosed under the home mortgage disclosure act. the act, which i will refer to as hmda, was enacted over thirty years ago. since then, it has undergone major changes. today, hmda requires most home lenders, a substantial majority of the home loan market, to disclose selected information about the applications they receive and the loans they extend each year. this information can be used for at least three purposes : first, to help the public judge how well lenders are meeting the housing - credit needs of their communities ; second, to facilitate efficient investment in housing and neighborhoods ; and third, to enhance the enforcement of laws prohibiting discrimination in lending. hmda promotes these goals through disclosure rather than substantive mandates or restrictions. the act does not direct lenders to make loans to any particular areas or persons. nor does it direct lenders to make particular kinds of loans or to refrain from any particular loan terms or practices. instead, hmda prescribes lender disclosures that, taken together, form a public data set about lending patterns. every reportable application for a loan occupies a unique line in the data set. in 2005, there were approximately 31 million reported loan applications. the information disclosed about each application includes the race, ethnicity, and income of the applicant, the type and amount of the loan applied for, whether the loan was originated or the application was denied, and the census tract of the property to be financed. for the public ’ s convenience, summary reports of the data are published by metropolitan area and by institution - for almost 9, 000 depository and nondepository institutions. these summary reports are compiled by the federal reserve board on behalf of the agency members of the federal financial institutions examination council ( ffiec ). the board also processes and edits the transaction - level data, which the ffiec makes available to members of the public, who may analyze and compile the data as they see fit. the information disclosed under hmda constitutes a rich data set, but, of