patrick honohan : recent economic developments in ireland and the outlook for the economy opening statement by mr patrick honohan, governor of the central bank & financial services authority of ireland, at the presentation of the annual report 2009, dublin, 16 july 2010. * * * we are today publishing the central bank ’ s 2009 annual report. the new central bank reform bill will formally create a new single unitary organisation. to reflect the reality of our new structures, this is the first such report to incorporate the annual reports of both the central bank and financial regulator in one publication. we are today also publishing our strategic plan, which i expect will also form the basis for our operations going forward under the new legislation, subject to the views of the new commission. i am joined by jim farrell, chairman of the financial regulator authority ; and mary sheehy, assistant director general and secretary of the bank. we will be happy to take your questions after our brief opening words. as we state in the annual report, the failures of the banking system here have rocked the economy and the public finances, with severe impacts on all members of society. to address this, the country is faced with three key policy issues : stabilisation and normalisation of the banking sector ; consolidation of the public finances ; and restoration of the economy ’ s competitiveness position. for our part in the central bank, the focus remains on restoring the health of the banking system. we have already taken action, in march of this year, to review and set new, higher capital requirements for our main banks. these new levels are based not just on expected loan losses but on potential losses in a stressed situation. we expect that the banks will meet the capital requirements set out by us, which we believe are sufficient to withstand future stress scenarios. a combination of capital raising and asset disposals, underpinned by government support, should ensure they meet those targets by december. we are also carrying out additional stress tests on aib and bank of ireland, as part of the european wide methodology set out by the committee of european banking supervisors ( cebs ). of course, we have already stress tested these banks in the earlier exercise i referred to. indeed, the severity of the tests we conducted earlier on loan losses exceeds that of the cebs version, although cebs has extended the test to reflect events in the sovereign debt markets. we will be providing details of this latest exercise on this day week. the new requirements we are imposing,

matthew elderfield : central bank of ireland ’ s progress in improving financial regulation and supervision opening statement by mr matthew elderfield, deputy governor of the central bank of ireland, to the public accounts committee, dublin, 13 june 2013. * * * i would like to thank the committee for inviting me back to discuss the progress that has been made in improving financial regulation and supervision since i was last here in may 2010, at which time we discussed the comptroller and auditor general ’ s report on the lessons of the financial crisis. there is a lot of ground we could cover, but i think that is best done through our discussion, so let me be extremely brief in my opening remarks. i would like to spend just a few minutes to describe the progress that has been made in three key areas : supervisory capability and approach, regulatory standards and powers and, finally, regulatory philosophy, including the role of enforcement. and then let me just mention one final loose end from the cag ’ s special report 72, which relates to auditor assurance statements. but can i just sound a note of caution at the outset : while good progress has been made in improving financial regulation and supervision in ireland, we are by no means all the way there yet. indeed, as a supervisor you are almost always playing catch up with industry and it is dangerous to think you will get to a point when you can rest on your laurels. so, it is important to maintain the momentum of improvements, to keep the regulatory framework up to date and to ensure supervisory capabilities are always at their best. it ’ s also especially important to be vigilant against backsliding and attempts to compromise the independence or dilute the diligence of regulation, especially when times start to get good. in terms of supervisory capability and approach, it was clear that supervision was underresourced in a range of areas and therefore staffing levels have necessarily increased in the last few years. my original estimation was that the regulatory function of the central bank would need to be some 725 persons - strong, but based on experience, process improvements and efficiencies, i would think that a target level of around 600 is sensible for the end of the current three year central bank strategy in 2015. continually striving to improve quality is also important, by ensuring the right mix of experience and investing in training, so that your supervisors have the skills to challenge firms effectively. ensuring that the central bank can attract and retain the skills it needs