the entire spectrum of businesses. the responsibility and accountability is therefore immense. our business is about bringing value and benefits to our citizens. in an environment of greater transparency and enhanced communication there is also greater awareness of the prevailing circumstances. this has produced higher expectations for the delivery of results. energy is derived from this very sense of meaning of what responsibility brings. it is the drive to making the difference to the economic well being of our citizens. fiercely knowing this responsibility and accountability is the very source of the intense energy necessary to preform the function of central banking. knowing the high costs that destabilising developments can have on the people and businesses and its potential damage to the nation is a major prompt of the perseverance to press on, to survive and to succeed. often we need to just confront the realities and produce a solution when it seems hopeless. courage is also needed to stay the course. knowing the stakes are high, knowing that you are being counted upon spurs the unwavering determination. from my experience as a lifelong career central banker, such extreme conditions that test us to the limit have become increasingly frequent. while there have been many great successes that have been achieved, there have also been those moments that have been most trying bis central bankers ’ speeches and devastating. during such times, developments set you back to a much worse situation than your original position. those times have arisen from external shocks that are beyond our control, from ambitious agendas that have been met with violent resistance and domestic stress brought on by actions that are in conflict with the bank ’ s mandate or from political tensions. the ability to endure, to persevere, to be resilient in the face of such extreme odds is about having a great sense of purpose of what needs to be achieved and the motivation of why it needs to be achieved. the sheer responsibility and the awareness of the accountability that comes with it is the very driver of such perseverance. it is also the fear of failure and knowing the far - reaching and damaging consequences. this is reinforced with the values and the discipline to stay the course to do what is right and to do what is in the interest of the people. the discipline is also important so that the central bank is consistent in its behaviour in managing the challenging conditions or in its aspirations to push the frontiers and create great value for the country. during such times, having great clarity in the vision and on the objective of what is to be achieved becomes paramount. this has to be

. but the report set out important principles about a company´s risk management and necessary checks and balances. its recommendations were based on the coso - framework, an internal control framework of global standing. the peters report was, in fact, the first dutch code of corporate governance. it gave an impulse to the development of explicit requirements on good governance for banks. how? well, in 1999 dnb issued its regulation on organisation and control or roc. in drafting the roc, we used the governance framework of the peters report as its backbone. so in addition to risk management requirements, this regulation includes checks and balances for the managing and supervisory boards of banks. for example, the roc requires all banks to establish an audit committee function involving knowledgeable and independent supervisory board members. all banks, you may wonder? yes, we require such an audit committee function for all, but we allow smaller institutions to meet this requirement within their limited capabilities. this is an example of a principle - based regulation which allows congruence with reality. it will come as no surprise that the second dutch code on corporate governance, the tabaksblat code, contains many of the same aspects as dnb´s roc, since both are based on the same source. the same goes for some papers of the international basel committee on banking supervision, in which we were again able to integrate the peters committee´s recommendations. oversight promotes a level playing field this leads us to an important purpose of public oversight. i refer to the aspect of promoting a level playing field. maintaining a level playing field requires not only adequate regulations but also transparent supervision. you will agree with me that supervising an organisation that applies good governance will differ strongly from supervising an organisation that applies bad governance. supervisory action towards supervised organisations can have direct or indirect benefits for those who apply good governance. in that sense supervision is in the corporation´s as well as in the public interest. transparency i have just mentioned transparency as an important aspect of supervision. it is beneficial for enforcement purposes. after all, it is important for supervised organisations to know what our enforcement instruments are and when we will use them. an important new development here results from the revised european directive on banking capital requirements. this directive adopts the new basel ii capital framework for european legislative purposes. it also requires supervisory disclosures from all european competent authorities - a development which we support actively. so in future everybody will be able to compare the supervisory level playing field for banks through the websites of the european banking supervisors.