“ let the future of finance be that of financing the future! ” with mark carney ’ s speech, we have come to an end to today ’ s conference. before we move on to the much deserved reception with drinks and snacks, please allow me to share a few closing thoughts with you. i would first of all like to thank the acpr and bank of england for co - organizing this event with us. without their commitment and hard work, we would have never such an impressive line - up of speakers : more than 35 different speakers, moderators and panelists! i want to thank in particular the organizing committee, consisting of representatives of our three organizations for all their hard work. and i want to thank you all for coming here, from all corners of the globe. we hope, as do all ngfs members, that this conference has inspired you. and that you will go home motivated to take the next steps for integrating green finance into supervisory practices. and if you get back home, and you want to get to work, but you are also unsure how to start : know that the ngfs is open for business and that we very much welcome applications from those willing to enthusiastically contribute to the work of the ngfs. and let me just say this though : sustainability is not some niche. it ’ s is not a " nice to have " for the happy few. sustainability is crucial for our own survival. there is no alternative. without rendering our way of life sustainable, we die. in fact, people are dying already. the world health organization states on its website that “ climatic changes already are estimated to cause over 150, 000 deaths annually. ” and the site provides us with direct links to scientific studies on this subject. so as long as we keep speaking about sustainable finance we will not have succeeded. we do not need a thing called ‘ sustainable finance ’. we need all finance to be sustainable. this is our ultimate to - be - or - not - to - be moment. finance will be sustainable or there will be no finance. we as a regulatory community, we as the central banks and prudential supervisors of the world, have a crucial role to play in all of this. a role squarely within our mandate as supervisors and financial stability authorities. we must contribute to this great financial transformation by ensuring the safety and soundness of financial institutions and the system as a whole in this transformational process. the good news is that we have already come a long

a h e m wellink : the role of the nederlandsche bank address by dr a h e m wellink, president of the nederlandsche bank, on the occasion of the russia - netherlands economic forum at the hague on 29 october 2001. * * * introduction it is with great pleasure that i ’ ve accepted the invitation to deliver a brief address this morning, not least, of course, because this forum has been organised in co - operation with our colleagues of the bank of russia. at the request of the organising committee, i shall dwell briefly on the main tasks of the central bank of our country, the nederlandsche bank, as well as on the relations with the european central bank. some of you probably also attended the previous conference, held in amsterdam in may 2000, which had ‘ transition to the market economy : actual problems in financial and banking sectors ’ for a theme. one of the items highlighted on that occasion was financial stability. who could have suspected at the time that a mere eighteen months later, on the eleventh of september, an act of unprecedented brutality would put the international financial system under threat? 11 september : also an attack on financial stability on tuesday the eleventh of september, it was soon brought home that the system of ( international ) payments was running the risk of becoming seriously unsettled. it was not at all certain either at that point whether the financial markets would continue to function properly. fortunately, despite some minor hitches, payment systems could be kept operational. even so, the american financial markets did not open again until the seventeenth of september. since that day, the fed, the ecb and several other central banks have cut their interest rates. all in all, the monetary authorities have managed to ward off the acute threat to the financial system by a wide range of monetary measures. their actions were swift and well co - ordinated. presently, the authorities are seeking to cut off terrorist groups from their financing sources by tracking and freezing their bank balances. it may be clear that this is a comprehensive operation for the international banking system. in our country, the scope of the supervisory legislation will be extended to include trust offices and special financial institutions. the existing legislation, such as that governing the disclosure of unusual transactions, will be adjusted as well. these measures all serve to safeguard the integrity of the financial system. i firmly believe that the currency markets would have grown quite restless if it hadn ’ t been for the euro or the ecb. and