jorg asmussen : changing reality intervention by mr jorg asmussen, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the panel discussion “ reverse reality – what if : lehman sisters ’ or the sisterhood ran g20 and big business? ”, women in parliament, global forum, brussels, 28 november 2013. * 1 ) * * reversing reality the title of our debate “ what if lehman sisters … ” invites us to a thought experiment : what would a reversed reality look like? would the world be a better place per se? i doubt it. there is plenty of empirical evidence on gender differences in finance and risk aversion. experiments and field studies on gambling and betting show that women on average are more risk averse than men. my anecdotal evidence as a father of two young ladies age 6 and 5 proofs quite to the contrary that female do behave hazardously on playgrounds. however, as an economist, i have no reason to doubt the empirical results. but i doubt, indeed, that reversing reality in the sense of replacing “ male dominance ” in finance by “ female dominance ” would make the world a better, or the financial industry a safer place. it would merely create another type of “ unbalanced reality ” with the same tendency to herding behaviour. 2 ) changing reality i am, however, deeply convinced that it is time to change reality and to strive for more gender diversity. a ) why is gender diversity important? i see three reasons for this : first, gender diversity brings new insights, skills and experiences to an organisation and is thus an asset and a competitive advantage. mixed teams achieve on average better results. if you allow, i would like to use a successful soccer team as an example : yes, you need brave strikers, ready to take any risk and not shying away, even if it hurts. but to be successful, you also need the midfield, setting the scene for others and willing to run the extra mile. and you need the very cautious defence you can rely on. second, gender diversity allows accessing the widest talent pool. 50 % of newly graduates are women and the majority of graduates with top grades are female. we simply cannot afford to not make use of these human resources and this argument weighs even heavier in ageing societies facing demographic challenges. third, gender diversity is simply a question of fairness and chances of participation in modern society and key to work - life balance for modern families

comfortable relative to regulatory requirements. however, pre - existing sources of risk and vulnerability remain and some have grown : • the recent market jitters have confirmed concerns regarding previously identified risks and vulnerabilities and have revealed the relevance of some new risk exposures ; • vulnerabilities could be quickly unearthed if market liquidity were to abruptly and sharply decline, possibly triggered by a wane in risk appetite caused by a change in risk perceptions ; • re - leveraging in the corporate sector and the process of credit risk transfer from the banking system to other financial institutions and market participants which is associated with a greater emphasis on the “ originate and distribute ” business model by banks, could constitute vulnerabilities in a less benign market environment. • in addition, global imbalances remain a medium - term, low - probability but potentially high impact risk for financial stability. therefore, despite the strong performance of the financial sector and the benign macroeconomic outlook, there is no room for complacency, given the potential risks and the identified vulnerabilities. this conclusion also reflects the fact that the materialisation of risks and the triggers that could expose vulnerabilities can not be predicted with any degree of certainty. the main message for the financial institutions is to prepare to mitigate potential disturbances through appropriate risk management arrangements including through stress - testing and vigilant monitoring of the financial soundness of their counterparties.