in cross - border transactions. and it could improve macroeconomic conditions by providing additional, diversified, sources of financing to firms, especially smes. 6 i will elaborate on climate change shortly. the insurance sector in ireland the almost 200 firms we currently supervise at the central bank of ireland vary significantly in their nature and scale. we welcome new authorisation enquiries, and remain committed to an open and transparent application process. over the course of 2020 and 2021 the bank authorised 15 firms and oversaw 52 portfolio transfers and material changes in business plans, which represents a marked increase in the volume of applications over previous years, resulting in a sector which covers more diverse – and in some cases more complex - risks than in 2016 when the solvency ii framework was implemented. the insurance sector proved to be resilient throughout the pandemic and the solvency position of insurers based in ireland rose marginally over 2021, with solvency coverage ending the year at 187 per cent, well above regulatory requirements and back to pre - pandemic levels. this meant the sector as a whole entered 2022 with a strong capital base. 7 the current outlook however is challenging for all financial market participants. the russian invasion of ukraine has clouded the outlook significantly. while the russian war is first and foremost a humanitarian tragedy, its economic consequences are being felt across europe through negative sentiment effects, greater uncertainty and higher inflation. the majority of ( re ) insurers have limited business or investment exposure to russia, ukraine and belarus. these countries accounted for around €675m of ( re ) insurers ’ investments at the end of 2021, equating to just 0. 15 per cent of their total investments. the majority of exposure was via investment funds held in respect of unit - linked savings business. 8 however, all ( re ) insurers will need to face the secondary effects of the conflict on economic and financial market conditions, both in ireland and globally. this is because the ukraine crisis has served to heighten the risks that were already faced by ( re ) insurers as we entered 2022. these included the risks posed by stretched asset valuations and the possibility of sudden market corrections, potential exogenous economic shocks, inflationary pressures and the general financial and operational risks associated with increased volatility and uncertainty across the globe. as the governing council of the ecb outlined last week, inflation rose further to 8. 1 per cent in may. and although governments have intervened and have

/ default. aspx diversity is good for the bottom line disparities of this kind are unfair. they also make terrible business sense. diversity improves financial performance : across the economy as a whole, firms with top - quartile executive - level diversity are 20 - 30 % more likely to outperform their peers ( figure 3 ). and diversity reduces risk. research at the university of leicester found that an increase in the number of female traders in a market reduces the occurrence of crashes. 6 firms with monocultures suffer a quarter more governance - related issues than their peers, according to the fca. 7 and the imf found that banks with higher shares of women leaders had higher capital buffers, lower nonperforming loans, and higher ‘ distance to distress ’. 8 figure 3 : likelihood of financial performance above national industry median ( % ) source : ‘ delivering through diversity ’, mckinsey, january 2018. https : / / pdfs. semanticscholar. org / 88c1 / 6ee1ff277cd71340dd15980537174658016f. pdf https : / / www. fca. org. uk / news / speeches / women - finance - keeping - pressure - progress https : / / www. imf. org / en / publications / staff - discussion - notes / issues / 2018 / 09 / 17 / women - in - finance - a - case - for - closing - gaps - 45136 all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / publications / pages / speeches / default. aspx there are several reasons for these findings : first, recruiting a more diverse team means you are fishing in a bigger talent pool – so you should be able to choose a better team. second, more diverse teams make better decisions, because they have more ways to approach problems, and are better at self - challenge ; and third, diversity improves a firm ’ s connection to, and empathy with its customers. within a trading environment, research suggests that adding more women to trading teams tends to improve risk management, increase average returns, reduce the incidence of ‘ over trading ’ ( or trading for the sake of it ), and improve a team ’ s capacity to monitor for, admit to, and learn from past mistakes. but if diversity is so great, why has it taken so long for fx and other markets to begin to embrace it? we can only