had to face amid a flood of capital. third, the exit from these measures has not been easy. while the post - crisis environment provided an opportunity to gradually normalize the reserve requirements levels ( thus supplying an additional counter - cyclical tool ), they remain high by european standards. however, despite all these obstacles, i think the resort to unconventional policy instruments had 3 major advantages. bis central bankers ’ speeches i would name first the fact that they certainly managed to limit the size of the disequilibria. i have no doubt that the outcome would have been a lot worse had we been complacent and relied entirely on the self - corrective behaviour of markets. i will give here just one example : forex interventions limited significantly exchange rate fluctuations, with the appreciation during the massive capital inflows and the depreciation after the crisis outbreak not exceeding 25 percent. in the absence of such interventions, the magnitude of fluctuations could have been as high as 40 to 60 percent. the foreign exchange purchases made before the crisis not only limited the unsustainable leu appreciation and the associated loss of export competitiveness, but supplied the ammunition for subsequent interventions to cushion the currency depreciation once the outbreak of the crisis changed the direction of the flows. and i believe this is the second benefit of the approach. last, but not least, thinking outside the box allowed us to avoid incurring losses after 2006. while profitability should not be a concern for a central bank, this development proved very fortunate from the perspective of the political economy. on the one hand, it allowed the nbr to preserve its independence in relation to the government by not generating quasi - fiscal deficits in a period with an increasing fiscal imbalance. on the other hand, it helped preserve institutional credibility in relation to the banks subject to nbr supervision, which were closely monitored in terms of capital adequacy. moreover, through our actions we wanted to avoid rewarding the speculative behaviour several commercial banks were engaged in ( i. e. carry trade ) and instead incentivize them to focus on their core activities. bis central bankers ’ speeches

our technological and data skills and capabilities has also been a focus of the central bank. while this involves an array of initiatives to develop organisational capabilities and better embed a data culture in the bank, i would like to highlight a particular initiative which we launched this week. artificial intelligence is already an important technology for financial services firms, central banks, and the wider economy – and is becoming more central to the provision of financial services to both households and businesses. ai, like all innovation, poses both benefits and risks. though the nature and scale of those benefits and risks is still uncertain, their potential is significant. in this regard, on monday i was delighted to launch a research partnership programme between the central bank and insight research ireland centre for data analytics. this partnership represents for both organisations a landmark collaboration to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence ( ai ) and data science. for the bank, it will provide us with additional capacity to deepen our understanding of applications of ai and data science to safeguarding consumers and the financial system ; and it will help us as an organisation to better anticipate, support and manage the risks of innovation related to ai, which i believe will be central to delivering on our mandate in the future. while the programme is just one element that will build capacity for the bank to supervise ai and to use ai and data science itself across all our roles, the partnership will enable us to catalyse activity to answer applied policy - driven and fundamental research questions related to ai, data science, and related disciplines – all for the public good in ireland. conclusion so let me conclude. fintech is an increasingly important of our financial system, as tech and finance become increasingly inseparable. that may well accelerate in the coming years, along with the digitalisation of the rest of society – with more widespread and deeper usage of ai and tokenisation representing the potential next frontier. 7 / 8 bis - central bankers'speeches as i have said technology itself is not necessarily good or bad – what matters is how it is deployed. this includes how innovative firms run their businesses, and manage the risks facing them, their customers and the system. and while such changes to our system, and the potential changes to come, may be fundamental, they will not alter our supervisory fundamentals – though it may alter how we need to deliver them. for protecting consumers and the system – through good governance, risk management, and resilience – will always remain key. so too will the fact that it