banks or financial conglomerates have emerged. in the netherlands, systemic supervision, aimed at safeguarding overall financial stability, is the domain of the nederlandsche bank, especially where banks and payment systems are concerned. internationally, the trends just sketched stress the increasing importance of coordination and cooperation between national supervisory authorities and further harmonisation of regulatory rules. these elements are effected by various sector - specific international groupings of regulators and supervisors, such as the basel committee on banking supervision, the joint forum on financial conglomerates, the financial stability forum, and the banking supervision committee of the european central bank. given the responsibility of national central banks for fostering financial stability in the eurosystem, this banking supervision committee could, in principle, develop as a forum for strengthening the multilateral mode of supervisory cooperation within emu. yet another supervisory issue is raised by the increasingly blurred distinction between different types of financial institutions and the growing importance of financial conglomerates. these developments have recently led to the establishment of a council of financial supervisors in the netherlands. this council consists of board members of the securities board, the insurance board and the nederlandsche bank. i consider the establishment of the council as an accurate and logical reaction to the structural developments in the financial services industry. it seals the long - standing close and harmonious relationships between the dutch financial supervisors. the council of financial supervisors will not execute supervisory functions itself, but leaves that to its constituents. it deals with regulatory issues that go across boundaries of specific financial sectors. the first issue concerns the supervision of financial sector integrity. the second field of operation deals with the supervision of financial conglomerates. the third subject is related to customer protection, focusing on adequate product information. in this respect, the nederlandsche bank has recently established a consumer protection unit. this unit deals with the supply of information to consumers on the supervisory role of the nederlandsche bank. the unit will also stimulate the supply of information by institutions under supervision regarding their products, and will inform consumers on the possible procedures and competent authorities to settle disputes. v. concluding remarks let me now briefly summarise the key insights emerging from my speech. banks now conduct a much wider range of business than simply taking in deposits and making loans, which is their traditional financial intermediation business, and have become financial services firms. in many countries off - balance sheet income of banks now exceeds income earned from their traditional activities. moreover, profound changes in the distribution channels for banking products and in bank -

a h e m wellink : the role of the nederlandsche bank address by dr a h e m wellink, president of the nederlandsche bank, on the occasion of the russia - netherlands economic forum at the hague on 29 october 2001. * * * introduction it is with great pleasure that i ’ ve accepted the invitation to deliver a brief address this morning, not least, of course, because this forum has been organised in co - operation with our colleagues of the bank of russia. at the request of the organising committee, i shall dwell briefly on the main tasks of the central bank of our country, the nederlandsche bank, as well as on the relations with the european central bank. some of you probably also attended the previous conference, held in amsterdam in may 2000, which had ‘ transition to the market economy : actual problems in financial and banking sectors ’ for a theme. one of the items highlighted on that occasion was financial stability. who could have suspected at the time that a mere eighteen months later, on the eleventh of september, an act of unprecedented brutality would put the international financial system under threat? 11 september : also an attack on financial stability on tuesday the eleventh of september, it was soon brought home that the system of ( international ) payments was running the risk of becoming seriously unsettled. it was not at all certain either at that point whether the financial markets would continue to function properly. fortunately, despite some minor hitches, payment systems could be kept operational. even so, the american financial markets did not open again until the seventeenth of september. since that day, the fed, the ecb and several other central banks have cut their interest rates. all in all, the monetary authorities have managed to ward off the acute threat to the financial system by a wide range of monetary measures. their actions were swift and well co - ordinated. presently, the authorities are seeking to cut off terrorist groups from their financing sources by tracking and freezing their bank balances. it may be clear that this is a comprehensive operation for the international banking system. in our country, the scope of the supervisory legislation will be extended to include trust offices and special financial institutions. the existing legislation, such as that governing the disclosure of unusual transactions, will be adjusted as well. these measures all serve to safeguard the integrity of the financial system. i firmly believe that the currency markets would have grown quite restless if it hadn ’ t been for the euro or the ecb. and