should print to facilitate the economy. under the mla, the central bank has the powers to print money by acquiring several kinds of assets. those assets are provisional advances to government, purchase of government securities, purchase of foreign exchange and lending to banks. in conducting monetary policy, the central bank determines the annual growth of money desirable for the economy taking into consideration price inflation and production growth. in line with the desirable growth of money, the central bank maintains its asset growth to facilitate new money required. in the us and euro area during the last six years, central banks have been expanding their assets many times to print money so that the economy is flooded with money to be invested in production and creating employment while keeping interest rates at rear zero levels. third, regulation and supervision of banks and financial institutions banking, finance and leasing businesses fall within the purview of the central bank under the mla and relevant statutes. state supervision according to the global literature has three specific dimensions. i. e., the prudential aspect, conduct of sound business and consumer protection. prudential supervision promotes the safety and soundness of institutions through their risk management. conduct of sound business supervision covers fair and orderly conduct of businesses. consumer protection covers safeguarding interest of consumers. the central bank ’ s supervision mainly covers prudential supervision in three areas, i. e., issues of regulations, examinations and problem resolution. issues of regulations covers maximum limits on business to limit risks, minimum requirements on risk mitigation instruments such as bis central bankers ’ speeches minimum capital, liquidity, loan loss provisions and governance. periodical examinations cover the assessment of risk management capacity and early warnings of impending problems to take early remedial actions. problem resolution covers solution to institutions in crisis or distress such as restructuring, bailing out and liquidation. this supervision has two perspectives at the micro and macro levels. micro supervision means dealing with individual institutions. macro supervision means actions to protect the system stability. although the differentiation between the two is barely understood by many, the central banks ’ supervisory actions are clearly understood from how central banks have acted in crisis times. the best example is permitting the failure of small ailing institutions and bailing out of systemically important institutions. however, the customers of each ailing institution want the central bank to bail them out, despite risky behaviour of both customers and institutions. the central bank has no mandate to bail out each such institution and repay their investments. similarly, the central bank cannot reasonably be held responsible for

ajith nivard cabraal : management accountants – focusing on the repositioning of the profession special address by mr ajith nivard cabraal, governor of the central bank of sri lanka, at the global summit, organised by the institute of cost and works accountants of india on “ repositioning the management accountant ”, new delhi, 12 january 2008. * * * the theme of the conference suggests that the management accountants of today are de facto doing something different to the traditional role of the management accountant. the new de facto role seems to be more of that of a strategist and a performance management specialist, rather than a historical “ information supplying ” or even a “ decision facilitating ” role of an accountant. if one were to drill down, we may perhaps note that the education and training of those who have become strategists and performance management specialists may not have necessarily been intended that way. but yet, it happened. how did this happen? • perhaps the training, although intended to create management accountants, was appropriate to create a strategist. • perhaps the training, coupled with business developments and public expectations, shaped management accountants to become strategists or the deliverers of outputs rather than contributors of inputs only. • perhaps the ability of the management accountant, as a result of his core disciplines, enabled him to respond effectively to unfolding developments and then deliver new outputs, and such abilities were recognized by the business community in the course of time. if all this happened without anyone consciously or deliberately “ positioning ” the management accountant in that role, what is the need to “ re - position ” the management accountant now? now that some re - positioning has already taken place, albeit accidentally, need we do more? should we let the status quo remain? why should we tinker with the management accountant now? by the time we do that, would the goal posts have shifted due to the rapid developments that are always taking place? to answer these questions, we may need to take a long hard look at the future of the global business environment over the next 10 years. what do we see? we see • new developments : tremendous change and a rapid rate of changing ; • blurring of traditional roles : different people doing old jobs ; new people doing new jobs ; • new skills and multi - disciplinary teams at work ; • status quo being challenged all the time and impermanence becoming a feature ; • volatility becoming a given fact and chaos being the