play a major role in the esrb. however, wherever central banks are involved in financial supervision, it is imperative that this does not compromise their independence and their primary objective, which is to maintain price stability. 5. conclusion ladies and gentlemen there is no doubt that the regulatory and supervisory framework has to reflect the global nature of the financial system. nonetheless, heterogeneous national structures make it imperative to maintain a certain degree of flexibility when reforming regulation and supervision. to strike the balance between uniformity and subsidiarity is certainly a formidable challenge but i am confident that we will eventually succeed and create a more stable and more resilient financial system. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

time. let me now turn to our open market operations. as tensions and uncertainty rose in mid - march, investors moved rapidly toward cash and shorter - term government securities, and the markets for treasury securities and agency mortgage - backed securities, or mbs, started to experience strains. these markets are critical to the overall functioning of the financial system and to the transmission of monetary policy to the broader economy. in response, the federal open market committee purchased treasury securities and agency mbs in the amounts needed to support smooth market functioning. with these purchases, market conditions improved substantially, and in early april we began to gradually reduce our pace of purchases. to sustain smooth market functioning and thereby foster the effective transmission of monetary policy to broader financial conditions, we will increase our holdings of treasury securities and agency mbs over the coming months at least at the current pace. we will closely monitor developments and are prepared to adjust our plans as appropriate to support our goals. amid the tensions and uncertainties of mid - march and as a more adverse outlook for the economy took hold, investors exhibited greater risk aversion and pulled away from longer - term and riskier assets as well as from some money market mutual funds. to help stabilize shortterm funding markets, we lengthened the term and lowered the rate on discount window loans to depository institutions. the board also established, with the approval of the treasury department, the primary dealer credit facility ( pdcf ) under our emergency lending authority in section 13 ( 3 ) of the federal reserve act. under the pdcf, the federal reserve provides loans against good collateral to primary dealers that are critical intermediaries in short - term funding markets. similar to the large - scale purchases of treasury securities and agency mbs that i mentioned earlier, this facility helps restore normal market functioning. in addition, under section 13 ( 3 ) and together with the treasury department, we set up the commercial paper funding facility, or cpff, and the money market mutual fund liquidity facility, or mmlf. millions of americans put their savings into these markets, and employers use them to secure short - term funding to meet payroll and support their operations. both of these facilities have equity provided by the treasury department to protect the federal reserve from losses. after the announcement and implementation of these facilities, indicators of market functioning in commercial paper and other short - term funding markets improved substantially, and rapid outflows from prime and tax - exempt money market funds stopped. in mid - march,