. within the dutch central bank i have actively promoted diversity, including gender diversity. and we have shown that positive change is perfectly possible. the aim is and has to be gender equality. as member of the executive board i would strongly advocate that the ecb, and all national central banks and all national competent authorities, commit to that very aim, and achieve it. beyond bringing our own house in order, we can and should require more from financial institutions to make their boards and staff composition more diverse. not just as a box ticking exercise, but to achieve real change. the capital requirements directive you have colegislated gives us supervisors a sound legal basis to do just that. if confirmed as member of the executive board, i will do my utmost to make this a greater priority. the challenges are many. but we can meet them, working together in mutual trust and in good cooperation. if confirmed, it is in this spirit that i would seek to contribute to the ecb ’ s important work and work with you, the european parliament, for the benefit of the euro area and the prosperity of its citizens. i thank you for your attention and look forward to this hearing. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

that, worldwide, we will need three million additional cyber professionals to adequately protect our data – professionals for cyber leadership, to test and secure systems, and to train people in digital hygiene. 1 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches from my perspective, as a supervisor with de nederlandsche bank, i can only underscore the urgency to act that speaks from this report. my aim is to safeguard trust in the financial system. and cybercrime, be it a data leak or ransomware or any other form, poses a significant threat to that trust. what happened to the central bank of bangladesh in 2016 was a loud and clear reminder. but it is, of course, no wonder that cyber threats are on the rise. over the years, financial institutions have been morphing more and more into it companies with a banking licence. more and more of what financial institutions do, happens digitally. as a consequence, the it infrastructure has become more and more essential to the functioning of the financial institution as a whole. in the past, it was the vault with cash and coins that needed protection – today, it's the digital infrastructure. three other evolutions further complicate effective protection of data and operational continuity. first, there is the increasing interconnectedness between financial institutions. they rely on each other for many services, including handling transactions, balances, clearing and settlement. a disruption at one financial institution could have consequences for another. second, the increasing digital dependency on specialised third parties – for instance for cloud solutions, payment systems, or security operation centres. often, this makes sense – if only for the economies of scale that come with outsourcing. but by now, we have reached a point where a significant number of financial institutions are highly dependent on third party services for some of their vital processes. and this creates a potential security threat. if an external party were to fall victim to cybercrime, this could permeate through the entire financial system with severe results. the third evolution is that only a few specialised and increasingly dominant providers handle the majority of outsourced services and processes. and some of them are definitely very well equipped to counter cyberattacks. nevertheless, with this evolution comes a concentration risk. if one of those service providers were to encounter operational difficulties or get hacked, a lot of its financial clients might experience difficulties. across the board, it is safe to say that as the digitalisation of financial services increases, and the subsequent interconnected