janet l yellen : welcoming remarks speech by ms janet l yellen, chair of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the community banking in the 21st century, the third annual community banking research and policy conference, cosponsored by the federal reserve system and conference of state bank supervisors, federal reserve bank of st. louis, st. louis, missouri, 30 september 2015. * * * thank you. it is truly a pleasure for me to join president bullard and chairman cotney in welcoming you to the community banking research and policy conference, which i am proud to say has been cosponsored since its inception by the federal reserve system and the conference of state bank supervisors ( csbs ). this is the third year for this conference, which i consider a milestone. the first time you organize a conference like this, all you can be sure about is that there was indeed enough research and interest for such a conference. the second time it is held, you proved that you could do it again. but the third year, this year, is when we can start to feel we have established a tradition. if this year ’ s conference comes even close to being as successful as the first two were, and i expect it will be, i hope that we have established an ongoing role for this gathering, which provides such a great opportunity for bankers, regulators, and academic researchers to come together to share ideas and insights about the issues that matter most in community banking. based on the agenda and conference materials i have seen, i expect participants over the next two days will tackle some of the most important issues facing community banks, provoke discussion and debate about opportunities and challenges, and generate some promising ideas about how community banks can continue to play the indispensable role they have played in so many communities. the lineup of speakers, which includes my federal reserve board colleague, governor brainard, is impressive. she and others will delve deeply into the important research questions and other issues facing community banking. my role today is to welcome you on behalf of the federal reserve board. in the interest of getting to the important work of this conference, i will be brief, but if i accomplish anything by speaking to you today, i hope it is to convey the board ’ s understanding of the unique and important role of community banks in our financial system as well as the board ’ s commitment, at the highest level, to consider how our supervisory and regulatory decisions affect those institutions. my

3 %, which means that the number of people claiming unemployment benefit, at under 950, 000, is the lowest for 26 years. and what has been a good period for the uk economy as a whole, has also been good - in an absolute sense - for wales. here on an lfs basis the rate of unemployment fell from the recent peak of over 10½ % in november 1993 to below 6 % in july this year for the first time since these data were collected ; and, on the claimant count basis, unemployment, which touched 10 % in the winter of 1992 - - 93, had fallen to 3. 8 % in august, the lowest rate since june 1975. but i freely acknowledge that it doesn't necessarily feel like that today - certainly not to everyone. i am only too well aware that there are a lot of people in every part of the uk - both business people who've been under real pressure and employees who have lost their jobs - who will react to these statistics by saying " well you could have fooled me! " that may well be true of some of you here this evening. the bank receives detailed reports every month from each of our 12 agencies throughout the uk, including reports from sue camper based in cardiff. many of you will know sue already - and i encourage those who don't to make yourselves known to her. the reports which she and her fellow agents make each month, based on their direct, first hand, knowledge of what's happening in their area, are fed directly into our monetary policy committee process. they play a vital part in informing our understanding of the macro - economic statistics which in themselves can only capture the overall, aggregate, picture. so we do know, i promise you, about the job losses and plant closures particularly in manufacturing. those on the receiving end won't thank me for saying this but some of those problems at the micro - economic level are an inevitable characteristic of every economy. needs, tastes, technologies and productive techniques are constantly changing even in the most benign macro - economic environment, and the rise and fall of individual businesses or business sectors, as comparative advantage shifts - nationally and internationally - is a painful but necessary facet of economic progress. obstructing such change cannot help in anything but the short term. the more constructive approach is to encourage the redeployment of resources to alternative activities where there is a prospect of comparative advantage. happily that is the path - the path to