mugur isarescu : christine lagarde ’ s visit to romania opening speech by mr mugur isarescu, governor of the national bank of romania, on the occasion of the imf managing director christine lagarde ’ s visit to romania, bucharest, 16 july 2013. * * * madame christine lagarde, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, today i have the pleasure to welcome again here, at the national bank of romania madame christine lagarde, managing director of the international monetary fund. it ’ s good to mention from the beginning that she is the first woman to ever lead the imf. timothy geithner, the u. s. treasury secretary at the time, said upon her appointment, on july 5th, 2011 : “ lagarde ’ s exceptional talent and broad experience will provide invaluable leadership for this institution at a critical time for the global economy. ” allow me to briefly introduce madame lagarde to you. she was born in paris. her father was an english professor. she spent her childhood in le havre and after graduating high school she went on a scholarship to maryland, usa, attending holton arms school in bethesda. madame lagarde got her law degree at university paris x ( dix ), and holds a master ’ s degree from the political science institute in aix - en - provence. already a member of the paris bar association, christine lagarde joined the international law firm of baker & mckenzie, becoming its chairman of the global executive committee in 1999. subsequently, she acted as chairman of the global strategic committee in 2004. christine lagarde joined the french government in june 2005 as minister for foreign trade. in june 2007 she became minister of economy and finance, being the first woman to hold the position of finance minister of a g - 7 country. from july to december 2008, she also chaired the ecofin council. in 2009, financial times ranked her as the best minister of finance in the eurozone, considering both her excellent work within the french government and her involvement in the management of the financial crisis. madame lagarde acted with diplomacy as chairman of the g - 20 when france took over its presidency for the year 2011. all these achievements in her current position led forbes magazine this year to rank her among the most powerful and influential women in the world. besides her contribution to official matters, madame lagarde has broader interests and is involved in various fields of expertise as well as global

mauritius to ratify the convention. regulations under the financial intelligence and anti - money laundering act 2002 have been promulgated. another law on mutual assistance in criminal and related matters has also been enacted. guidance notes on anti - money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism have been updated and aligned with international standards as acknowledged by the fsap mission. the ambiguity as to whether the bank of mauritius is empowered to issue such guidance notes has been dealt with in the anti - money laundering ( miscellaneous provisions ) act. furthermore, a few additional guidelines are being worked upon. a draft guideline on credit policy has already been finalised and is due to be issued to the industry shortly. in february 2002, at the quarterly meeting of the banking committee, i proposed to chief executive officers of banks, the establishment of a credit information bureau in mauritius. bankers enthusiastically welcomed the project. a sub - committee, comprising senior officials of all commercial banks and headed by the manager legal of the bank of mauritius was appointed to make recommendations on the way forward. the sub - committee submitted their report in august 2002. i am happy to note that the fsap mission is supportive of this initiative. the national bank of belgium houses one of the most sophisticated credit information bureau in the world. i accordingly solicited the assistance of the governor of the national bank of belgium to guide us on this project. a delegation headed by the managing director of the bank of mauritius, comprising bankers, will proceed to the national bank of belgium for a prospecting visit in november this year. in all the assessments that have been made so far a common thread is perceptible. the strong willingness of the authorities in mauritius to co - operate and to promote the country as a sound and clean jurisdiction runs through the assessments. even before the financial sector assessment programme started we, at the bank of mauritius, had already identified certain areas of vulnerability of our banking industry. we did initiate several remedial actions and i am particularly pleased to note that the fsap report does make mentions of the various initiatives. the fsap report is a critical assessment of where we stand today. the recommendations are expressions of views regarding what need to be done now and in the immediate future. but we need to constantly review our supervisory and legal framework in the light of changes taking place in the domestic economy and in the dynamic international financial system as well. we have a panoply of rules, guidelines and laws for the proper conduct of banking business