bimal jalan : india and globalisation speech by dr bimal jalan, governor of the reserve bank of india, at the thirty sixth convocation address of the indian statistical institute, kolkata, 15 january 2002. * * * this is a truly momentous occasion in the life of this institute, its students, its teachers, and its friends. let me begin by conveying my heartiest congratulations to the students who are receiving their degrees today. for all of them, it is a culmination of years of hard work, and a recognition of their high academic merit. all the teachers of this great institute, who have put in so much time and effort to make this day possible, also deserve our gratitude. i would like to specially welcome the parents of the students, who are present at this convocation. without some sacrifice and a good deal of support, successful completion of higher studies by young men and women, who are here today, would not have been possible. i am personally grateful to the president of the indian statistical institute, prof. m. g. k. menon and director, prof. k. b. sinha, for inviting me to be a part of this occasion. a scientist, a scholar and a public figure, prof. menon has led this institute with great distinction. he has been a source of inspiration for all those connected with isi and its teachers and students. it is a particular privilege and honour to deliver this address in his esteemed presence. on this important occasion, i would also like to pay homage to the memory of professor p. c. mahalanobis, founder of the isi and the builder of the modern statistical system in india. his technical contribution to the development of statistics as a science are fundamental and well known all over the world. what was even more remarkable, in a developing country context, was his desire to use statistical methods including sample surveys to understand and solve the problems of an underdeveloped economy, including low productivity agriculture. the high quality, the depth, and the breadth of research and teaching in statistics and other interrelated subjects at this institute are tributes to the vision of prof. mahalanobis and his confidence in our country ’ s future. while i am thankful for being here on this occasion, i am also a little daunted by the task of having to say something useful which may be of interest to this varied audience from so many different walks of life. after some reflection, i have chosen

nout wellink : working on the future of the financial sector speech by mr nout wellink, president of the netherlands bank and chairman of the basel committee on banking supervision, at the dutch embassy, london, 19 february 2010. * * * i will first briefly share with you my view of the recent developments in the financial sector and on the crisis. second, i will discuss what the future role of supervision will be in order to minimize future crises. i will speak about some of the initiatives of the basel committee, and why these alone will not be enough. and finally, i will speak about the role of the financial sector itself. let me first of all start by saying that although the financial sector has been hit severely, and probably none of us has ever experienced something like this before, it is not a unique situation from a historical perspective. in the netherlands and the united kingdom there have been a significant number of large financial and economic crises throughout history. one famous example of this is the dutch tulip mania in the early 17th century, when the prices of tulips fell dramatically after an excessive speculative bubble period. or, the collapse of overend & gurney bank in 1866 london, which triggered a series of bankruptcies of several smaller, but otherwise solvent british banks. we struggled, but came out stronger after each. just as what must have been said after each of those events, let me assure you that this crisis will also not be the last. all of our measures and good intentions aside, we are of course always perfectly prepared for the most recent crisis. the next crisis is a different story. what we can do is learn from each crisis and try to prevent and mitigate a similar crisis, and to do our best to diminish the likelihood and impact of any future crisis. our recent crisis is, in my opinion, the result of many problems. let me mention some. one is undoubtedly the search for yield that has often led to excessive risk taking. or the compensation schemes and bonuses in the financial sector that by leading to a strong public outcry, have laid the foundations for a lack of trust in the financial sector. supervision and the regulatory system must take responsibility for the crisis too. despite the continuous improvement of regulatory practices throughout the years, certain risks were built up due to regulatory arbitrage opportunities. but this crisis also showed a fundamental lack of transparency. customers ( private and institutional alike ) did not know anymore just what exactly they were buying ; supervisors