international accounting standards should incorporate disclosures of payments to governments by companies in the extraction of natural resources, especially those in the oil, gas and timber sectors. this needs to be done in both the public and private sectors to ensure that maximum revenue and other benefits accrue to the societies in which these companies operate. more generally, the accounting profession has cross - cutting socio - economic responsibility in a variety of ways including governance, business ethics, banking regulations and supervision, as well as financial stability. in this respect, climate change and its effects have opened up new horizons in which accountants can be involved in a wide range of socio - economic issues. it is my hope that accountants from developing countries will take the lead in putting in place the necessary accounting and reporting standards on costing and financing of the mitigation of adverse socio - economic effects of climate change. these were agreed on at last year ’ s united nations climate change conference in copenhagen. you will agree that this is a multidisciplinary area which, i believe, will involve close consultations between your profession as accountants and other disciplines. here at home, the financial reporting bill that was passed by parliament recently, and awaiting presidential approval, will contribute considerably in widening the scope for the responsibilities of the accounting profession. similarly, when the botswana accounting oversight authority is put in place, it should strengthen the professional accountability and ethical conduct of accountants. as a related matter, ladies and gentlemen, you will know that, in a bid to circumvent a possible repeat of the recent financial crisis, the basel committee on banking supervision reached a landmark decision on september 12, 2010. this is known as basel iii, and it translates into a more than doubling of the common equity component of capital for global banks, from the current 2 percent to 4. 5 percent, plus a new buffer of a further 2. 5 percent, to reach a floor of 7 percent. the effective implementation of this new capital adequacy requirement is the period 2013 – 2019, and it is meant to make banks resilient to financial shocks and ensure a more healthy banking sector worldwide. any bank capital falling within the buffer zone will face restrictions on paying dividends and discretionary bonuses. we await more of these proclamations and transformations going forward as the basel committee on banking supervision continues to be hard at work. as a matter of fact, the basel committee is catching up with botswana ’ s regulatory framework on this matter. it should be of interest that the bank

does liquidity mean, and why does it matter? imagine that you are doing your weekly grocery shop, but when you get to the cashier you realize you don ’ t have your wallet. even though you have lots of assets — maybe a house or a car or even a boat in the driveway — you can ’ t quickly or easily trade those for milk and bread. you are in a liquidity crunch because you don ’ t have cash on hand to buy the goods and services you need. 1 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches similarly, the financial system can only function smoothly if people, companies and governments can borrow the cash they need to operate. and this borrowing is only possible if financial institutions — the source of this cash — have access to borrowing themselves in wholesale debt markets. this is the essence of funding liquidity — being able to quickly and predictably borrow money in markets or from banks. separately, we also refer to market liquidity — the notion of being able to sell assets quickly without offering a large price discount. participants in financial markets depend on market liquidity to be able to manage their asset and cash holdings by trading large amounts of assets at predictable prices. as you can see, market and funding liquidity work hand - in - hand in normal times. institutions that need cash can get it by borrowing from or selling assets to other institutions that may have surplus cash. but in a crisis, everyone is looking to get more cash. those who have cash may hoard it. and liquidity dries up. when there ’ s not enough liquidity, it breeds uncertainty and turmoil across the whole the financial system. this makes it more difficult and more expensive for households and businesses to get credit at a time when they need it most. and all of this can worsen the overall impact of any large - scale economic shock and lengthen the recovery timeline. so let ’ s talk about the liquidity crunch that happened as the coronavirus hit. toward the end of february, as it became clear that covid - 19 was becoming a global pandemic, turbulence in financial markets increased. more and more economies worldwide shut down, and prices in financial markets began to reflect a downturn in the economy. it ’ s important to remember that we ’ ve never experienced a shock of this nature before, so markets were gripped with uncertainty about how long the downturn might last and how deeply canadians would feel its impacts. as you might guess, markets hate uncertainty. when uncertainty