, so this provides me with a good opportunity to draw some initial conclusions. benchmarks for interest rates as regards benchmark interest rates, the final report recommends pursuing two main approaches in the future. first, existing interest rate benchmarks should be further improved. second, efforts should be made to develop alternative benchmark interest rates. thus the two - pronged approach for the future envisages, alongside improved libor interest rates which would still be based on unsecured money market transactions, the emergence of more benchmark interest rates related to repo transactions or other near risk - free transactions. the fsb ’ s final report states that significant progress has already been achieved with the libor rates. however, not all of the requirements set by the securities regulators ( iosco standards ) 1 have so far been met. in particular, it still remains unclear whether the markets upon which the interest rates are based are sufficiently liquid. a certain level of liquidity is needed to ensure robust benchmark rates, i. e. rates based on a sufficiently large number of transactions. the libor administrator, ice benchmark administration ( iba ), reacted to the fsb report by announcing further improvements to ensure that the libor rates would become better established through the use of actual transactions. such actual transactions will be used either directly, for calculating the libor rates, or indirectly, for underpinning the contributions. in this context, the inclusion of short - term loans to large customers or money market instruments, in addition to interbank market transactions, is being examined as a future possibility. in order to assess the fsb proposals, surveys are being conducted to collect data in the currency areas concerned. the snb conducted such a survey at the beginning of summer for switzerland, collecting data on bank transactions on the interbank market and with large customers, as well as on trade in money market instruments. more than 50 domestic and foreign banks took part in the survey. the results confirmed that the small number of actual transactions on the money market currently constitutes a problem for the creation of robust benchmark interest rates. consequently, it seems improbable that a pure transactions - based approach could be implemented for the swiss franc. this is also the case if other transaction types and additional instruments are taken into account. for this reason, the swiss franc libor will continue to be based mainly on contributions by participating banks. iosco is the international organization of securities commissions. bis central bankers ’ speeches as i

speech embargo 21 september 2017, 5. 30 pm second karl brunner distinguished lecture introduction of john b. taylor thomas j. jordan chairman of the governing board swiss national bank zurich, 21 september 2017 © swiss national bank page 1 / 4 ladies and gentlemen i am very pleased to welcome you to the 2017 karl brunner distinguished lecture. the swiss national bank established the karl brunner distinguished lecture series to pay tribute to academics whose research is of particular relevance for central banking. with this annual lecture, we want to reach a wide audience, including, in particular, students. for this reason today ’ s event is taking place at the eth zurich, which is internationally one of the most renowned academic institutions. i would like to thank the president of the eth zurich, professor lino guzzella, for making these fantastic premises available to us. this year, we are paying tribute to john b. taylor. he is one of the world ’ s foremost economists. john ’ s work is characterised by a keen interest in highly relevant questions, from both an academic and an applied point of view. he has made major contributions to economic theory. in addition, by bridging the divide between theory and practice, he is one of few economists to have had a profound impact on economic policy and thus on macroeconomic stability. john is also a very effective teacher. just let me give you one example. did you know that tiger woods, the famous golf professional, was his student in the introductory class at stanford? john taught tiger about opportunity costs. immediately afterwards, tiger left college and joined the pro tour. clearly, a decision that paid off. but back to john taylor again. today, he will talk about ‘ ideas and institutions in monetary policy making ’. before giving him the floor, i will briefly introduce him. born in yonkers, new york, john taylor earned his a. b. from princeton university and his ph. d. from stanford. he taught at columbia university from 1973 – 1980 and at princeton university from 1980 – 1984. and since 1984, he has been teaching and researching at stanford. john is the perfect economist. he is outstanding as a researcher, policy advisor and teacher. in acknowledgment of his exceptional services, he has received a number of prestigious awards for excellence in all these three fields. let me say a few words about each of these areas, beginning with john taylor the researcher. his research topics range from work