careful analysis of the impact of basel ii, and we have the tools at our disposal to make any necessary changes to the calibration. accord implementation group the second area of implementation i would like to discuss is the work of the basel committee ’ s accord implementation group, or aig. the aig is chaired by nick le pan, whom many of you know as the superintendent of financial institutions in canada and who is also the vice chairman of the basel committee. as nick discussed at the iib ’ s annual conference here in washington in march, the aig plays a critical role in trying to ensure consistency of implementation of basel ii across borders. as representatives of international banks, i know that consistent cross - border implementation of basel ii is a high priority not only because you want supervision to reflect as much as possible the manner in which your organisations are managed, but also because you may be concerned about supervisory burden. let me assure you that it is also in the best interest of supervisors that we try to minimise as much as possible any duplication of effort and make the most of our limited resources. having said that, i should also be clear that basel ii will never be implemented with 100 % consistency across borders, just as basel i is not currently implemented with 100 % consistency. there are important differences in laws, financial markets and supervisory practices, among others, that make it impractical to expect that basel ii will look exactly the same in every country. the role of the aig, then, is to share information and promote — not mandate or enforce — consistency in implementation of basel ii. it is clear that there is no “ one - size - fits - all ” approach to implementing the new framework. rather, implementation should be tailored to the specific circumstances of a bank and the jurisdictions it operates in. it seems to me that to enhance consistency we need to work on improving vertical co - operation, namely home - host issues, and also horizontal co - operation, that is to say convergence of practices. we think that the bottom - up approach is the most efficient and less prescriptive method of achieving these goals. in this regard, one of the primary methods the aig uses to promote cross - border co - operation is to encourage home supervisors of the 50 or 60 largest internationally active banks in basel committee member countries to engage in practical outreach to host supervisors and the bank to open clear lines of communication and co - operation. while these outreach efforts were initially considered to be “ case

made visible progress in the correction of the external imbalance, the deleveraging of households and firms, the redressing of fiscal balances towards levels more compatible with the sustainability of public finances and the restructuring and consolidation of the banking sector. unemployment has also begun to decrease significantly. the reforms undertaken within spain, along with the headway made in furthering economic and monetary union and the ecb ’ s highly expansionary monetary policy, have proven key to restoring confidence. however, the legacy of the crisis, eight years after its onset, is still burdensome as shown by the high levels of unemployment and foreign debt. bis central bankers ’ speeches in this setting, the main risk is that of doubts arising over the continuity of the macroeconomic, fiscal and financial re - balancing drive. such doubts could prompt a deterioration of confidence and a fresh tightening of financing conditions which is highly significant for a country like spain with a very high net debtor position, that is, ongoing net borrowing. undoubtedly, therefore, in order to avoid reversals in the achievements attained, it is necessary to persevere with competitiveness - enhancing and fiscal consolidation policies, which provide the foundations for confidence, economic growth and job creation. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches