dividend income from equity participations has generally become much more important, indicating an increase in the importance of the profit generated by non - bank subsidiaries. beside the establishment of non - bank subsidiaries, there have been other strategic and organisational changes that have resulted in banks strengthening their securities - related activities. in particular, significant motives behind the recent merger trend seem to include the desire to increase bank size and hence to be able to operate efficiently in wholesale securities markets as well as to be able to cater for the needs of large international corporations for investment banking services. the trend towards securitisation can be regarded as one of the reasons for the structural changes in the banking system that appears to have accelerated recently. there have naturally also been other reasons why banks have sought to merge, predominantly the need to cut capacity and to reduce costs. these cost - driven mergers have taken place primarily among smaller banks. 6. conclusion in my remarks today, i have referred to a number of changes and market initiatives in the euro area financial landscape. these developments point to the increasing importance of the fixed income and equity markets that many expected in stage three of economic and monetary union ( emu ), providing new opportunities for borrowers and investors and causing pressure to adjust for financial institutions. in this respect, i should like to mention the importance of removing the remaining regulatory barriers to the further development of the securities markets. to this end, the european commission has recently published an action plan of regulatory changes to improve the single market for financial services that would certainly – when implemented – boost the integration and market - driven development of the european securities markets. finally, i should like to conclude with some remarks about the role of the eurosystem ( the term that we use to mean the ecb and the 11 national central banks of the member states participating in stage three of emu ) in the developments in the financial sector in europe. first of all, the eurosystem contributes to developments in the financial sector by providing it with a stable and credible monetary policy. with a strong and credible commitment to its primary objective, price stability, the eurosystem has created a situation in which the financial sector can concentrate on those issues that are of the greatest relevance to its activities. the eurosystem does not play a direct role in structural developments in the financial sector. with its single monetary policy framework and target in particular, the eurosystem has created an infrastructure that has proved to be useful for the establishment of an integrated money market in

##riah advisors - to responsibly complement each other in providing checks and balances, and in strengthening the corporate governance practices. at the international level, the islamic financial services board and other standard setting bodies have an important role to harmonise the practices and complete the framework by setting the broad governance framework for international application. it is with this integrated and cumulative approach, insyaallah, that strong and effective corporate governance framework will be successfully implemented. each one of us regardless of our position, as regulators or bankers, is accountable. let me conclude with reference to the saying of the prophet, " each one of you is a guardian, and each guardian is accountable to everything under his care ".