requirements for the directors and boards of both banks and insurance companies. while these may be more demanding than those in place in other jurisdictions, we believe they set an appropriate benchmark. the statutory fitness and probity standards strengthens the central bank ’ s “ gatekeeper role ” and allow us, where appropriate, to suspend or remove an individual from a senior position in a regulated firm. in december 2011 we formally launched our prism framework for supervision and applied it to banks and insurers. we will extend it to investment firms and credit unions next month and later in the year we will use it in support of focused thematic inspection work across a significant number of firms. prism is at the centre of our new assertive risk - based approach to supervision. put simply, prism involves the targeting of our supervisory resources between firms on the basis of empirically driven quantitative metrics showing the potential of each firm, were it to experience problems, to adversely affect consumers, the economy or public finances. we have significantly upgraded the skills of our supervisors both by bis central bankers ’ speeches recruitment and training programmes. they will ask difficult questions, they will be sceptical and ready to engage in sometimes unpalatable but necessary conversations and analysis. enforcement also helps to deliver a regulatory regime which is credible and effective. we have stepped up our work in this area. last year we entered into enforcement settlements with 10 financial providers, resulting in a range of sanctions including the disqualification of 2 directors and fines totalling €5 million. areas prioritised in 2012 include mortgage arrears, retail intermediaries, payment protection insurance and client asset requirements. we are looking forward to adoption of the central bank ( supervision and enforcement ) bill which should reinforce the powers of the bank in the context of regulation setting, proactive supervision and enforcement. the bill includes a single wide ranging power of direction, wider powers for authorised officers, the ability to require “ skilled persons ’ reports ” and increased administrative sanctions penalties. more broadly, it proposes protections for whistle - blowers and will strengthen the central bank ’ s ability to provide assistance to overseas supervisors. this is a flavour of recent regulatory developments in ireland. the process of rethinking our philosophy, changing our culture and reengineering our processes continues. our regulatory resources have kept pace with the new challenges and responsibilities having grown from 385 in 2009 to a target for this year of 714. in 2012 we expect to consolidate and drive for greater efficiency and effectiveness with

the resources now at our disposal. throughout this period we have tried always to learn from best practice internationally and to take advantage of our membership of the european supervisory authorities. during the panel on banking later this morning i will say something about our expanding engagement with the european institutions and the lead - in to the irish presidency of the council of ministers, which gets under way in january 2013. let me now invite minister noonan to open our conference. bis central bankers ’ speeches