however, the rapid increase in the volume of financial flows was accompanied by a rise in their volatility, which represents a new source of risk. the sudden withdrawals of international capital have played a major role in triggering and spreading financial crises over the past fifteen years. this is the main concern of the french presidency of the g - 20 and it appears crucial to me to examine it, not only from the narrow perspective of the management of capital flows, but also from the wider perspective of global liquidity. indeed, the increase in global imbalances is not confined to current account positions. in addition to the growth in net international capital flows, the very sharp rise in gross positions in international portfolios, not exclusively but largely linked to the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves by the major emerging economies, is one of the most significant developments of the past few years. the striking synchronisation of the recent economic crisis across the major economies is certainly in large part a result of this. bis central bankers ’ speeches in any case, the issue of the appropriate level for the supply of safe and liquid international assets and the international monetary and financial system best able to provide this has yet to be resolved. as you know, this issue is at the heart of france ’ s presidency of the g - 20. the second major topic is international economic and financial coordination and i will briefly touch on its two main components. the first component concerns the framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth. this initiative has been given wide media coverage since its adoption at the g - 20 summit in pittsburgh in september 2009. however, i am inclined to think that it has sometimes been distorted and that its scope has been underestimated. this initiative is indeed a promising and ambitious one : promising as it could be the impetus for genuinely enhancing international economic cooperation through the combination of economic policies taking greater account of externalities and structural reforms, in order to achieve the jointly defined global objectives. ambitious, of course, as it involves countries making explicit commitments on measures to be taken and discussing the outcomes with their peers, as part of what is known in g - 20 jargon as the mutual assessment process ( map ). under the korean presidency, whose efficacy and vision i would like to praise, an initial exercise resulted, in late 2010 in seoul, in the adoption of a detailed country - by - country action plan and the commitment to tackle more specifically the global imbalances identified by the indicative guidelines. far from me the idea of

be compatible with their independence or even with their mandates to ensure price stability? bis central bankers ’ speeches the reform of the international monetary system will be the central theme of the last session that will take the form of a roundtable chaired by martin wolf. i am particularly grateful to bill white for accepting the difficult task of drawing a summary of our symposium which is bound to be both dense and captivating. i would like to hand the floor to axel weber to chair the first session, and, once again, i would like to thank all the eminent personalities who have agreed to participate in this symposium. bis central bankers ’ speeches