with academic expertise or experience including experts on the economy or finance. " indeed, policy board members come from quite diverse backgrounds and include former academics, executives of corporations as well as financial institutions, and private - sector economists. the number of members of the bank's policy board is nine, which is the same as that of the mpc of the boe, but it is smaller than the fomc of the federal reserve system and the governing council of the ecb. according to a survey on central bank laws conducted by the staff of the international monetary fund ( imf ), most central bank committees have seven to nine members. 10 if the size of a committee is too small, the accumulation of knowledge becomes difficult, there is less diversity in perceptions and opinions, and checks and balances may not function well. on the other hand, if the size is too big, discussions become less productive. for extensive and constructive discussions where policy board members are given sufficient time to express their views, i believe the current size of nine members is within the appropriate range for a committee. at mpms, the governor and the deputy governors independently express their assessment on the economic and financial situation and their views on the conduct of monetary policy. see fujiwara ( 2003 ). see lybek and morris ( 2004 ). the governor and the deputy governors are also responsible for carrying out decisions of the policy board, together with the executive directors and the staff. the six other policy board members are full - time executives. in addition to mpms, they attend policy board meetings that make decisions, with the governor and the deputy governors, on important policy issues, such as those on financial stability, business operations, and management strategy. given that they hold important positions that require neutrality, they are prohibited from taking another occupation, and restrictions are also placed on the types of financial assets they can hold and the financial transactions they can make, as in the case of the governor and the deputy governors. mpms, where the policy board decides a guideline for money market operations for the intermeeting period ahead and formulates the bank's view on recent economic and financial developments, are held regularly, once or twice a month. aside from these meetings, policy board meetings where the bank's business operations, management strategy, and other issues are decided are, as a general rule, held twice a week. b. preparations for mpms let me describe how policy board members prepare for mpms. policy

##rrency collateral for settlement in their accounts ( chart 2 ). transfer of funds between cls and its participants takes place on their accounts at the central banks, currency by currency. cls deals with seventeen eligible currencies, and the cls settlement process takes place during a five - hour window corresponding to the morning hours in europe, early evening in japan, and very early morning in the united states, respectively. cls has played a critical role throughout the recent financial crisis. on an average day, cls settles 3 to 4 trillion u. s. dollars, which accounts for almost 60 percent of the foreign exchange settlements worldwide. 1 while the value further surged immediately following the failure of lehman brothers, cls completed settlement of the significant amounts of payments in a stable manner. the effective functioning of cls was particularly important because, over the course of the recent global financial crisis, the functioning of the u. s. dollar funding market was severely impaired and non - u. s. financial institutions, including japanese and european financial institutions, became increasingly dependent on foreign exchange swaps as a source of u. s. dollar funding. if cls ’ s pvp mechanism had not existed and financial institutions had confronted foreign exchange settlement risk under the rapid undermining of confidence in the soundness of financial institutions, they would have had much more difficulty in funding u. s. dollars through the foreign exchange swap market. simultaneous multi - currency settlement in cls acted as a bulwark to protect against the intensifying shock of the global financial crisis. b. ensuring settlement of jgb transactions a second example is that jgb transactions continued to be settled without serious problems despite the significant shock arising from the failure of lehman brothers japan ( lbj ). i will explain the jgb settlement process, focusing on a central counterparty ( ccp ) called japan government bond clearing corporation ( jgbcc ). see bank for international settlements, committee on payment and settlement systems ( 2008 ). a ccp replaces a bilateral contract between parties with two contracts between the ccp and the individual party. thus, the ccp becomes a buyer to every seller and a seller to every buyer. this brings two benefits. first, the ccp offsets a large number of obligations and claims across the participants, thereby reducing the amount of securities and cash needed for settlement. for example, in september 2009, an average of 35 trillion yen worth of jgb transactions was submitted to the jgbcc every