sharon donnery : financial markets and institutions - collaboration and knowledge dissemination welcome address by ms sharon donnery, deputy governor ( central banking ) of the central bank of ireland, at the policy research meeting on financial markets and institutions, dublin, 15 june 2017. * * * good morning to you all and a very warm welcome to our new campus here at north wall quay in dublin. our official opening took place in late april, with staff on the ground since january, so you really have come here at a time of renewal and great excitement for us as an institution. i hope that you enjoy your time here. we are delighted to be welcoming such an eminent group of speakers to the bank today. i would particularly like to thank our colleagues from the federal reserve who first initiated this event, which has been running since 2012 with previous workshops having taken place in turkey, luxembourg, the netherlands, belgium, rome and stockholm, along with the proceedings in helsinki earlier this week. special thanks also to wayne passmore and scott frame who have provided the impetus, helped shape the program, and ensured the participation of such a distinguished group of speakers from across the federal reserve system. cross - institution collaboration and knowledge dissemination is of critical importance in central banking. the coming together of people with a rigorous background in empirical research, yet with such a keen focus on the ways in which research, data analytics, empirical evidence and policy decision making are interwoven is fundamental to the development of evidence based policymaking. this is entirely consistent with the type of working environment that we continually strive to develop here at the central bank of ireland. i hope that we will all leave here tomorrow having learned a great deal. i am impressed by the breadth of topics being discussed over the two days of this event. the discussions about the implementation and effects of unconventional monetary policy are taking place at a historic time for central banks. the differing paths faced by the united states and euro area economies over the past half - decade mean that we find ourselves at an extremely interesting juncture. a stock - take of the effectiveness of unconventional policy, the risks associated with tapering and the differing experiences in the american and european systems is highly important for the calibration and effectiveness of monetary policy on both sides of the atlantic. at the nexus between unconventional monetary easing and the legacy impairments of the previous crisis lies the issue of bank profitability, which will be the subject of a session that i will chair later this morning. given my work on the issue of

faculty members of the banks ’ training institutes, business development teams etc.. my colleagues have also been visiting banks to hold rtgs awareness programmes. we have also been regularly meeting with your rtgs nodal officers to take stock of your preparedness for participation in the rtgs system. as the chiefs of the banks, all of you have to play the role of a catalyst to build up the critical mass of opinion in your respective organizations in this regard. you will not only have to facilitate internal dissemination of information on the rtgs system, but will also need to ensure complete infrastructural and human resources readiness including connectivity and security at your respective ends, so that the rtgs facilities could percolate to the ordinary customers. i appreciate that all of you have initiated necessary actions. you have already put in place the payment systems gateway, the box that is going to host all the payment system applications including the rtgs module for the banks, called the participant interface ( pi ) and connected it to our primary and standby sites. limiting the preparedness only to this will facilitate transfer of large value funds among the bankers only and the customers at large may not benefit from the rtgs system, defeating one of our primary goals in this regard. therefore, you will have to take urgent steps to ensure that all your banks ’ branches including those in the countryside are networked. further, the security infrastructure for message transfer in the form of public key infrastructure ( pki ), as per idrbt ca, will also have to be urgently implemented in your organizations, covering all the branches, which will be offering rtgs services to the customers. you will appreciate that not only those of us who live in cities, but the ordinary customers in the country side must also enjoy the fruits of our efforts and in fact, should also be the target group for all our new initiatives. the rtgs facilities will have to be available at every nook and corner of the country and therefore, the required network has to be in place for the purpose. sfms is already web - enabled and ready for use. here, i would like to caution you that any indecisiveness / delay on your part to provide the requisite cost effective and efficient systems for the purpose will only deprive your customers of the rtgs benefits and it will not be an unusual scene to be countenanced in the days to come, when exodus of customers will take place to fully rtgs -