. our research assistants are typically recent college graduates and most are at least considering further study of economics. these are sought - after positions because our ras have the opportunity to work with the board ’ s leading economists on both research and work that 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches directly supports policymaking. for the summer program students here today, i would encourage you to explore the ra program. serving as an ra either at the federal reserve board or at one of the reserve banks has proven to be a good way to learn more about the profession and prepare for graduate school. i can report that five graduates of last year ’ s program are now working at the board as ras and several are working at reserve banks. for the federal reserve system, our recruitment of ras is a great opportunity to give a wide range of potential newcomers some exposure to what the career pathway of economics looks like. while not all ras go on to further economics education and training, a considerable share do, and thus our diversity efforts have the potential to significantly affect career pathways later on. indeed, at the highest levels of that process, the federal reserve under chair janet yellen and with the strong support of the governors and reserve bank presidents is committed to increasing diversity among the top - ranking staff at the board and among leaders of the reserve banks. in the tradition of the discipline of economics, i have cited empirical support for the argument that diversity is good for economics. i know from my own personal experience we can and must do better, and in that spirit i want to tell you about one of my experiences that might resonate with some of you here. when i served at the treasury department for president obama, one of my responsibilities was to represent the united states in the group of 20 ( g - 20 ) deputy ministers of finance and central bank officials. at one of our negotiating meetings, the nearly 50 officials gathered for a group photo. when this photo was distributed to each of us as a memento, it caused a bit of a stir. i remember a colleague from another delegation doing a double take when he looked at the photo. he turned to me and said “ did you realize you are the only woman in this group? ” i had indeed already noticed that. and i am happy to say that his delegation added a woman after that. since that time, we have seen some particularly noteworthy milestones. at the time, there had been only one woman among the g - 20 countries serving as head of a central bank,

mr gehrig focuses on special structural characteristics involved in solving the year 2000 problem for the financial sector in switzerland speech by prof bruno gehrig, a member of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the global 2000 coordinating group meeting in montreux on 30 april 1999. i am most delighted to be your luncheon speaker today and thank you for your invitation. i am sure that montreux provides you with a highly stimulating environment for today ’ s global 2000 meeting. as you are no doubt aware, you are leading the way in tackling the year 2000 issue. i would like to thank you for your extremely important and valuable commitment, and i am certain that i also speak on behalf of my colleagues from other central banks, bank supervisors and - even more importantly countless customers in the financial industry. on the threshold of the third millennium we are indeed confronted with most complex and - in many regards - unique challenges. in terms of methodology, i believe it is essential to realise that we are dealing with complex network problems which cannot be solved on the basis of the behaviour patterns of market and competition we are all familiar with. in this context, external or third - party effects are in fact so significant that remarkable collective effort is necessary in order to minimise potential damages resulting from malfunctions. this applies both to the preparatory work and the challenge to overcome frictions which - in spite of our best efforts - will be unavoidable. public institutions and private companies are equally called upon to engage in a high level of cooperation and coordination beyond competition, even if, and especially where no individual business case can be made. the scope of preparations for the year 2000 is unprecedented in many dimensions. i cannot think of any other project which requires a similar degree of cooperation and coordination within and across organisations, industries, sectors and countries. features of the swiss case even though preparations are generally making good progress in switzerland, the country ’ s readiness chart exposes areas in which efforts will have to be strengthened. as far as the financial sector is concerned, which will be the focus of my remarks, there are some special structural characteristics involved in solving the year 2000 problem. our financial centre is the home of some large global players in the banking and insurance sectors as well as the place where numerous cross - border customer relationships are concentrated. we are, therefore, exceptionally vulnerable to international shocks. on the other hand, this also means that we must take on more responsibility with regard to the risk of