intriguingly, it looked at " heatwaves and meteor showers " - something we were in short supply of here over the past summer. back to the present, i am delighted that the central bank and financial services authority of ireland has been involved in the development, organisation and hosting of this latest conference. i know that we have benefited significantly from collaborating with the ecb and cfs in this field and i look forward to further developing these links in the future. all three organisers certainly set themselves a significant task when they undertook to " coordinate and stimulate top - level and policy - relevant research that significantly contributes to our understanding of financial system structures and integration ". from the programme for this event, however, i can see that you have certainly provided plenty of material to stimulate debate and consider policy implications on issues related to asset management, private equity firms and international capital flows. there has, of course, been a considerable amount of innovation recently in the private equity and hedge funds industries, and in complex financial instruments and asset management strategies generally. these innovations serve to more fully complete the financial markets landscape, although when used imprudently can present extra risks, as evident in recent market developments. this innovation has been led, to a significant degree, by market participants and has presented a number of challenges for policymakers, especially regarding the implications of risk transfer developments, valuation strategies and market disclosure rules for financial stability and the efficacy of policy. there is much that central bankers and academics can learn from market participants in these areas and a collaboration such as this research network provides an excellent forum for a sharing of ideas and an opportunity to contribute to these debates. turning to just a couple of the issues for discussion at this conference, the performance of, and risk and disclosure practices in, the hedge fund industry were of course a major focus of attention earlier this year, but have been pushed out of the headlines somewhat in recent months. however, i am sure that they will return - albeit hopefully not in an environment of disruptive market conditions. we can expect a renewed focus on the risks, which hedge funds can pose for highly - exposed counterparties and for markets generally, and on the type and extent of policy responses that can realistically be taken to help alleviate some of these risks. earlier in the year, market disclosure issues and questions about the adequacy of the indirect model of regulation - where the focus was on the exposures of counterparties, especially banks, to hedge fund risks - was a major

legislation, intrusive risk - based supervision, a credible threat of enforcement and powers of redress when consumers have suffered detriment. as harshly illustrated by the financial crisis, a fundamental protection for consumers lies in ensuring that the financial system is stable and that individual financial firms are subject to prudential regulations that require firms to be sound and solvent – that is, to maintain substantial capital and liquidity buffers to guard against risks. our oversight of the system includes the authorisation of firms, a fitness and probity regime and other governance - related requirements. it also includes a regime to manage the resolution or closure of firms in the event of failure. finally, our macroprudential measures seek to build resilience across the financial system. for instance, our macroprudential mortgage measures set limits on mortgage loans to guard against 1 / 8 bis central bankers'speeches over - lending and over - borrowing. the central bank works with other state bodies – including the competition and consumer protection commission ( ccpc ) and the financial services ombudsman ( fso ) – to form the national consumer protection framework, and participates actively in european and international bodies that also work to safeguard the interests of consumers. our role as the national resolution authority also contributes to both our stability and consumer protection mandates. the central bank is responsible for the orderly resolution of failing credit institutions, credit unions and certain investment firms. in that respect, members will be aware of the recent appointment of provisional liquidators to charleville credit union. we took this action to protect the savings of members, which are underpinned by the deposit guarantee scheme. the central bank is conscious that there is a demand for the services of a credit union in the local area and is committed to ensuring credit union services are available in the community. the tracker examination i will now turn to the tracker examination. this examination is focused on ensuring that lenders provide fair outcomes for all borrowers damaged by unacceptable failings in the handling of tracker mortgages, which has caused considerable suffering for many of those affected. it is clear that all lenders did not sufficiently recognise or address the scale of those unacceptable failings until central bank intervention. we have had to repeatedly challenge certain lenders and push to the limits of our powers in order to drive them to identify and remedy affected customers in an appropriate manner. this is a principal reason why the examination has required significant time to progress. if certain lenders had conducted their reviews in line with