do the volcker rule in a more efficient way to achieve the same objectives without the burden of regulation that you have right now. you know, right now, if you ’ re an equity trading desk and the equity market falls very violently, you really aren ’ t supposed to go in and buy equities unless you actually have customer orders. so, you actually have this crazy situation where the equity desk can ’ t actually buy equities to support the market. so, i ’ d like to see the volcker rule looked at to see if there ’ s a way of doing it in a way that – if you ’ re a client - facing business, and you ’ re trading your own asset class, you have a little bit more freedom to buy and sell when markets are volatile and maybe provide actually a little liquidity support in the market. but also make it a lot easier, i think, to enforce the volcker rule. the other thing i would say is relief for smaller banking institutions. the financial crisis was not about small banking institutions. it was about large banking institutions and particularly it was about large broker - dealers. and so i think the dodd - frank act imposed a lot of compliance and regulatory costs on smaller banking institutions. and i think – we have about 6, 500 smaller banks in the united states plus a lot of credit unions and other financial intermediaries. relief for those guys i think would be really, really valuable because the burden on them, they feel that burden disproportionately because they don ’ t have as big an asset base to spread all those compliance costs across. and i think it has more of a real consequence because a lot of these institutions support small business lending, which i think is really important to have a vibrant economy. maureen o ’ hara : so given the two goals you said that there were for the dodd - frank act, it does make you wonder how the congo minerals relief act ever got into the dodd - frank. but maybe we ’ ll leave the congo minerals for another night. well, i think the issues we ’ ve talked about here have covered a wide range of areas, and let me turn it open to the audience here and see if we can come up with some other questions. how about you? yes. audience member : you alluded to china and the concerns we had about it last year that have now gone away. why do you think the narrative changed on that, why do you think china

markets have been stable on the whole as the bank has been providing ample liquidity. in capital markets, stock prices have risen considerably and long - term interest rates have risen, as market participants ’ pessimistic view of the outlook for the economy and prices has subsided slightly across the world. in corporate finance, the fund - raising environment continues to be easy on the whole. however, the environment for firms with relatively high credit risk remains severe. ii. conduct of monetary policy it has been three months since i presented my previous statement regarding the semiannual report on currency and monetary control. since then, the bank has implemented monetary policy measures governor fukui made almost the same statement regarding the semiannual report on currency and monetary control for the second half of fiscal 2002 before the committee on financial affairs, house of representatives, on july 16, 2003. in a timely manner against the background of increasing uncertainty about the outlook for the japanese economy. at the monetary policy meeting on april 30, 2003, the target for the outstanding balance of current accounts held at the bank was raised by 5 trillion yen. at that time, there was still considerable uncertainty about the prospects for recovery in the u. s. and european economies and the impact of sars was a matter of concern for east asian economies. on the financial side, stock prices in japan, especially for bank stocks, remained weak and volatile. taking account of this increasing economic and financial uncertainty, the bank decided to raise the target for the outstanding balance of current accounts to maintain financial market stability and thereby strengthen support for economic recovery. in the middle of may 2003, the bank implemented further policy measures to provide support from the financial side after the emergence of problems at resona bank. the bank decided to provide liquidity to resona bank when necessary, including loans pursuant to article 38 of the bank of japan law, which do not require submission of collateral. furthermore, regarding its money market operations, the bank decided to further raise its target for the outstanding balance of current accounts by 3 trillion yen to ensure an ample provision of funds. this reflected greater uncertainty about the outlook for the japanese economy due partly to instability in the stock and foreign exchange markets, in addition to uncertainty about overseas economies. with such significant uncertainties, the risk of further instability in financial markets adversely affecting economic activity was a cause for concern. however, owing to the timely implementation of a series of measures by the bank, overall conditions in financial markets have remained calm and no