cyril roux : perspectives on financial regulation in ireland speech by mr cyril roux, deputy governor ( financial regulation ) of the central bank of ireland, at the institute of international and european affairs ( iiea ), dublin, 1 december 2016. * * * it is a great pleasure to be here today at the institute of international and european affairs, and i ’ d like to thank chairperson brendan halligan and director general tom arnold for the invitation. the central bank has a broad mandate – to safeguard stability and protect consumers – but it ’ s also one that is easily misunderstood as being all - encompassing. european and national laws give us a number of powers that we exercise, while also defining the limits of our role. a core objective of the central bank is to be trusted by the public, whose interests we serve. it behoves us to explain clearly what we do and what we don ’ t do. this is why we publish a performance statement every spring in relation to our financial relation function, come in front of the oireachtas at its discretion, and explain our actions throughout the year. today, i ’ d like to explain a little more about our mandate and our work by offering concrete examples on three areas : residential mortgages, domestic insurance, and brexit. these are three areas which may seem somewhat disparate at first, but in fact, all serve to illustrate the manner in which the bank seeks to fulfil its mandate, as well as the roles the bank doesn ’ t play. let me start with residential mortgages. the central bank is the national macroprudential authority for ireland, meaning it is our role to limit risk to the financial system as a whole. the mortgage measures, which we introduced in february 2015, are one of the tools by which we limit such risk. the measures also demonstrate the importance we attach to the protection of borrowers. borrowers should not over - extend themselves and borrow out of line with their income, nor should they risk entering into negative equity by leaving too little room for price reversals. lenders for their part should not take excessive credit risk by lending at or beyond the circumstances of their consumers, and are required to ensure, under the consumer protection code, that the mortgage is affordable for the borrower. that is why we impose the mortgage measures. although we slightly recalibrated them this month, based on the evidence to date, we regard them as a permanent fixture of the regulation of

lek ”. against this backdrop, the bank of albania is launching this awareness campaign, which will extend in time and will aim at being a comprehensive one, affecting various groups of interest. in a medium - term period, and through various channels, we aim at knocking at the doors of every albanian to uproot the terms “ new ” or “ old ”, by avoiding the confusion in the communication of prices and enhancing the correct reading of economic and financial indicators. lek is the national currency in albania, and the face value of each coin or banknote is the one written on it. nevertheless, the fact that this incorrect use is inherited in the day - to - day speaking and has been resistant for more than 55 years, illustrates that the sporadic and isolated efforts of a solely institution to rectify this phenomenon are insufficient. a joint and coordinated commitment among central institutions of the country, media and other relevant actors is crucial in this regard. particularly, the role of media is vital in this campaign, which through the transmission power to the public, has the skill to affect the mentality and communication pattern of the public at large. school, is another key factor for the establishment and cultivation of a new mentality. school may help for disrupting this 55 - year chain and not transmitting it to the young generation. on behalf of the bank of albania, i invite all the participating institutions, and more broadly, to join us in this meaningful and demanding commitment to educate the albanian public, with a view to abandoning forever the use of these outdated terms in the economic and financial interactions, and definitely turning it into a linguistic relict. i warmly thank you for the insofar contribution and allow me to recall once again that our currency is neither “ old ” nor “ new ”, but simply lek! 2 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches