ajith nivard cabraal : responsibilities of financial institution directors in the current turmoil address by mr ajith nivard cabraal, governor of the central bank of sri lanka, at the seminar on regulation, governance and legal responsibilities of directors of the registered finance companies, colombo, 24 april 2008. * * * deputy governors, assistant governors, directors of finance companies, my dear friends, i welcome you warmly to this seminar organized by the department of supervision of nonbank financial institutions. i also want to say “ thank you ” to all of you for taking the time to participate at this important occasion. you may have wondered as to why the central bank has decided to have a seminar of this nature and invited you to spend nearly half a day with us. therefore, at the outset, i will try to give you a little insight into the financial turmoil that the world is facing today. many of you, i am sure, are aware of the upheaval that is taking place worldwide, and i am also sure many of you understand the risks that are associated with it. my dear friends, somewhere around july - august of last year, various changes took place in the financial world. it started softly, like all difficulties, like all problems, and then suddenly, we realized that it was gathering momentum. the expression “ sub - prime issue ” was first of all, whispered ; people didn't say it out loud ; many didn ’ t even know what it is. however, they soon realized that there was a serious issue that was brewing ; some danger lurking. then, gradually people realized that a major calamity was taking place in the financial markets of the world. the crisis gathered momentum and then people also realized that the problem was highly complex ; little by little, the major triple a rated banks also started to feel the impact. banks realized that they have to change positions, and they started doing that. some of the biggest banks in the world, who were highly rated for many many years, and held in esteem all over the world as being institutions that could never be in danger, began to feel the pinch. then, we heard about the european central bank, the federal reserve and the bank of england pumping money into the mortgage markets in order to save the markets. we also heard about northern rock. the bank of england had to put in well over 30 billion pounds, that is, more than double the gdp of sri lanka, just to save this one institution. the

burkhard balz : overcoming the remaining hurdles in cross - border payments speech by mr burkhard balz, member of the executive board of the deutsche bundesbank, at the global payments summit, cape town, 29 june 2023. * * * check against delivery 1 introduction ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, i am delighted to be able to speak to you today about the future of cross - border payments in a town that has played such an important role in cross - border trade throughout its entire history. due to its location at the centre of the trade routes between east and west, cape town has always been at the heart of international trade, right between the atlantic and indian oceans. although trade was significantly slower during the age of sail, when cape town rose to prominence, there was already a need for payments spanning multiple countries and multiple currencies. this is a problem that we still face today, but on a significantly larger scale, because digitalisation, automation and globalisation have made trade faster, more complex, and more global. despite recent geopolitical tensions, global trade and migration are still on the rise. i hope that these trends will not reverse, since fragmentation means a loss of wealth. however, globalisation has put the spotlight on some of the inefficiencies that still affect cross - border payments. compared to domestic payments, cross - border payments remain slower, more opaque, and comparatively expensive. improving cross - border payments on a global scale may seem like an unsurmountable challenge right now, but, to quote the great nelson mandela : " it always seems impossible until it's done. " 2 striving to improve cross - border payments in light of the increasing importance of cross - border payments for the global economy, these inefficiencies prompted the g20 to launch an initiative to enhance this type of payment. as a result of this initiative, a roadmap1 consisting of 19 building blocks with concrete action points was set out in 2020. since then, work has progressed to a point where it is now concentrated on three priority actions. first, regulators around the world have to find ways to harmonise legal, regulatory, and supervisory frameworks. a greater degree of regulatory harmonisation may help to 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches automate cross - border payments further, leading to higher processing speed, and could lower the costs for compliance, which make up a large portion of the costs for these payments.