michelle w bowman : independence, predictability, and tailoring in banking regulation and supervision remarks by ms michelle w bowman, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the american bankers association community banking conference, orlando, florida, 13 february 2023. * * * i would like to thank the american bankers association for the invitation to speak to you today. it is a pleasure to be with you and to have the opportunity to share some of my views on banking regulation and supervision. of course, as you know, the federal open market committee ( fomc ) recently held its first meeting of the year. so, before getting into the substance of my remarks, i'll provide some brief thoughts on the economic outlook and monetary policy. 1 monetary policy let me begin with the fomc's effort to lower inflation, which continues to be much too high. stable prices are necessary for a healthy economy and to support a labor market that works for everyone. as a member of the fomc, i remain focused on bringing inflation down to our 2 percent goal. over the past year, the committee has taken forceful actions to address unacceptably high inflation by significantly raising the federal funds rate and reducing our balance sheet holdings of treasury and agency mortgage - backed securities. at our most recent meeting, we continued on that path by further increasing the target range for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4 - 1 / 2 to 4 - 3 / 4 percent. i expect that ongoing increases will be appropriate to bring the federal funds rate to a sufficiently restrictive level and that it will need to remain there for some time to restore price stability. the economic outlook and the outlook for inflation continue to be highly uncertain. global and domestic factors are contributing to heightened uncertainty, and i expect that we will continue to be surprised by economic and geopolitical developments and by the incoming data. while we have seen modestly lower inflation readings in recent months, overall inflation remains high. measures of core services inflation have been persistently elevated, and labor demand exceeds the supply of available workers, which is leading employers to increase wages in an effort to retain and attract workers. the ongoing tightness in the labor market puts upward pressure on inflation, even if some components of inflation moderate due to improvements in supply - side factors. the longer high inflation persists, the more likely it is that households and businesses may come to expect higher inflation in the longer term. should that be the case,

reviewing and accrediting training programmes to certifying individuals under fics ; • the management and staff of ibf have been unrelenting in their commitment to raising industry standards. as we look back at ibf ’ s 40 years, we can take pride in what it has achieved. • some 200, 000 participants have benefitted to - date from training courses offered or accredited by ibf. • close to 2, 000 practitioners have been certified under the fics standards. one of the reasons why ibf has done well is that it has renewed itself periodically, to stay relevant and effective amidst a changing environment but always focused on its core mandate of promoting competency in finance. today, ibf embarks on the next phase of its journey to raise industry standards. our new mission is to “ empower practitioners with capabilities for a robust asian financial industry ”. to equip our finance professionals for the next phase in singapore ’ s development as a financial centre, ibf will focus on two new dimensions. first, we will put together programmes which will not only develop depth in core competencies but also breadth across related functional capabilities. a successful career in finance today requires versatility across different areas, be it to offer comprehensive solutions to customers or manage risks holistically across multiple business lines. bis central bankers ’ speeches second, we will build expertise and capabilities to serve and operate not just in singapore but in a pan - asian financial market. with the surge of opportunities in asia, those with the knowledge and skills to operate across regional markets will be in high demand. these are capabilities that we must consciously seek to build amongst our professionals. ibf does not operate in a vacuum but in the larger context of what it takes to develop and grow the financial sector – to create meaningful jobs for singaporeans, support the needs of the economy, and serve the larger region. it is now my pleasure to welcome our guest - of - honour, deputy prime minister and minister for finance, tharman shanmugaratnam, to talk to us about this larger context. it is especially appropriate that dpm tharman is doing this as he is himself an ibf pioneer who, as ibf chairman some 14 years ago, transformed ibf to set competency standards for the industry. dpm tharman, please. bis central bankers ’ speeches