alan greenspan : home mortgage market remarks by mr alan greenspan, chairman of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, before the annual convention of the independent community bankers of america, orlando, florida, ( via satellite ), 4 march 2003. * * * last year was surely one of the most memorable years ever experienced by the home mortgage market. owing largely to the lowest mortgage interest rates in more than three decades and rising home prices, close to 10 million of regular home mortgages were refinanced. i use the term regular mortgage to exclude both home equity and construction loans. the outsized dollar volume of these refinancings - by our estimates, $ 1 - 3 / 4 trillion net of cash - outs - was an all - time record and represented almost one - third of the value of all regular home mortgages outstanding at the beginning of last year. total regular mortgage originations, at $ 2 - 1 / 2 trillion, also proceeded at a record pace. as part of 2002's process of refinancing, households “ cashed out ” almost $ 200 billion of accumulated home equity, net of fees, taxes, points, and commissions. that represented almost 3 percent of estimated total home equity at the beginning of the year, up slightly from the 2001 share. in no year prior to 2001, as best we can judge, did cash - outs exceed 1 - 3 / 4 percent of total home equity. of last year's cash - outs, approximately $ 70 billion was apparently applied to repayment of home - equity loans, and a significant part was employed to reduce higher - cost credit card debt, judging from the slowed pace of growth in installment debt outstanding. previous federal reserve surveys of the disposition of cash - outs indicate that a substantial amount perhaps half - was used to finance home modernization and personal consumption expenditures, outlays that directly affect gdp and jobs, and that likely was the case again last year. low mortgage rates doubtless motivated much of this spending, but the ready availability of home equity for extraction appears to have also played a substantial and independent role in prompting additional household expenditures. even as recently as the late 1980s, a family that wanted to use housing wealth to finance consumption would have faced an expensive and time - consuming process. although substantial home equity wealth has existed for many years, only in the last decade or so has secured borrowing against home equity become a cost - effective source of credit in a wide variety of circumstances.

emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : corporate governance and banking regulation in uganda address by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, to the kcb bank of board of directors retreat, kampala, 2 november 2012. * 1. * * introduction good corporate governance has become increasingly recognised worldwide as essential for the efficient functioning of market economies and to ensure that they function in the interests of the wider society, and not just those with power and wealth. the focus of corporate governance is the manner in which the business and operation of a firm is governed by its board of directors and senior management. at the core of corporate governance is the relationship between what are often termed the “ insiders ” of firms – dominant shareholders and senior managers – and the “ outsiders ” who include small shareholders, the creditors of the firm, its employees and customers and the general public. a key objective of corporate governance is to ensure that the insiders who control the management of a firm do not abuse their control and act in a manner which is detrimental to the interests of outsiders. good corporate governance is even more important for banks than it is for non financial firms, for two key reasons. the first is the much greater inherent opacity of the balance sheet of banks ; it is difficult for outsiders to evaluate the quality of the assets which a bank holds and, therefore, its true financial position. secondly, the potential negative externalities of bank failures are very damaging for the economy and for society, as was demonstrated vividly by the global financial crisis. corporate governance in banking has certain features which distinguish it from corporate governance in non financial firms. this is because of the unique characteristics of banks, in particular the fact they are very heavily leveraged and that most of their liabilities are owed to a large number of atomised depositors who have the most to lose from abusive or negligent management. consequently, a priority of corporate governance in banking is the protection of the interests of depositors. in addition, the corporate governance of banks attaches particular importance to the veracity of financial information. 2. bank failures in uganda and the reform of bank regulation in the 1990s and early 2000s, uganda ’ s banking industry suffered a number of bank failures. eight banks failed, forcing the bank of uganda ( bou ) to intervene and resolve them ; in some cases the failed banks were closed, in others they were sold to new owners. the primary cause of most of these