delisle worrell : introduction of new banknotes in barbados address by dr delisle worrell, governor of the central bank of barbados, at the launch of the new family of currency notes, bridgetown, 2 may 2013. * * * this is a very special occasion for the central bank and for barbados. as i reminded everyone in my first press conference after being appointed governor, the enduring worth of our currency is a source of national pride for all barbadians. understandably so, because maintaining the value of the currency is what has distinguished between the more successful small economies the world over, and those that have fallen behind in the race to improve living standards. in the caribbean the contrast is obvious, where small poorly endowed islands, barbados among them, have moved far ahead of their larger more richly endowed neighbours. the caribbean is not unique in this regard. singapore is a country held in high regard by many ; the value of the singapore currency is carefully managed by their monetary authority, albeit with the use of a basket of currencies rather than the us dollar, as in our case. today we preview the introduction of new currency notes, for the first time since the barbados currency was first introduced in 1973. the new notes are grounded in the past stability of our money. the personalities featured on each value note remain the same, and the general look of the note will be familiar. but barbados has come a long way since 1973, and we are now considered a developed country, as evidenced by our very high levels of purchasing power, health and education, when compared with countries around the world. as a symbol of our new status, we are now introducing notes that are as modern as the latest technology can make them. these notes are our declaration of intent ; we recognise that, having reached this advanced level of human development, we must cross swords with the best in the world and prevail, in order to maintain our forward momentum. that is why we have spared no effort in making our new notes the best they can be : the design is appealing, yet classy, the security features incorporate the most up - to - date technologies, and the notes include special aids for the visually impaired. our mandate to our banknote printer, de la rue, was to provide us with a secure, userfriendly series, and we are happy that we have accomplished this. the new notes have a contemporary layout and design that mirrors our status as a modern nation, but that

peter praet : interview in de tijd interview with mr peter praet, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in de tijd, conducted by mr wouter vervenne and mr bart haeck on 13 september and published on 16 september 2017. * * * do you know where you were when you first realised how serious the problems were? i was at the national bank [ of belgium ] in brussels in a meeting with european colleagues. one colleague from the bank of england suddenly had to leave in a hurry because there were problems with northern rock, where customers were lining up in the street to take out their savings. for me that was frightening. i had never thought that something like that could happen again. i remember saying to my wife at the time : i hope that we won ’ t have a banking crisis in belgium, because something like that goes on for a decade. the risks we were exposed to then were enormous. fortis alone already had a balance sheet of €1 trillion then, if you include insurance. if you compared the banks ’ balance sheets with the gdp of belgium, you could see how enormous the risks were. all in all we got through that period fairly well in belgium, even if it wasn ’ t pleasant for the shareholders and there is still a legacy from dexia. it is just sad that the banking crisis in europe has lasted so long. why exactly is it so sad? because it wasn ’ t necessary. the reforms could have gone faster. that is why the costs to society are much higher than they could have been : it weighs on our growth. it took so long because we did not have the right european institutions to bring the crisis under control among other reasons. a debt crisis broke out that meant many families and businesses couldn ’ t pay down their loans. in a situation like that debtors and creditors have to make a deal. but one group was in one european country and the others were in another european country. and we did not have european banking supervision yet. and there was no european resolution fund to make sure that a bank could fail without pulling others down with it. that made the situation very messy. did you see it coming? at that time you were the expert on financial stability at the national bank of belgium? i was actually already giving warnings about the dotcom bubble in the ‘ 90s. that earned me the nickname mister doom, which i wasn ’ t very happy about. i then became chef