18. 05. 2022 welcoming remarks pathways to gender equality in central banks margarita delgado deputy governor dear ladies and gentlemen, i feel very honored to participate in the opening of this conference co - organized with the international economic association, banco de la republica and banco de espana. the development of initiatives, such as this one that gives visibility to issues related to gender diversity, are key to finding solutions to the waste of talent that involves not taking this diversity into account, consequently putting economic growth at risk and depriving economies of opportunities to develop. ensuring diversity and, in particular, gender balance, must be a priority in our organizations and, with this commitment, we work at the banco de espana, where we have made significant progress in recent years. by the end of 2021, 51 % of our total staff were females, and it is noteworthy that, in one decade ( since 2012 ), that proportion has increased in nearly 10 percentage points. more than 4 years ago, in april 2018, banco de espana joined bank al maghrib, the central bank of morocco, to organize the first international meeting between international central banks with the aim of studying and fostering female leadership in central banks. in 2019 we expanded the geographical scope of this initiative to the " montevideo group " made up of the central banks of colombia ( banco de la republica ), mexico, argentina, chile, paraguay and uruguay. with all these central banks of latin america and some others which joined morocco, from the african continent, we organized what was going to be the 3rd meeting of central banks to promote female leadership “ fostering women's leadership in central banking ”. unfortunately, in march 2020 the pandemic broke out and this event had to be cancelled at the very last moment. the work initiated by so many central banks and the questions addressed are not the result of a fad or political ideologies. the matter of female leadership and gender diversity is an economic concern of global importance, which, according to the world economic forum, after the pandemic, has suffered a setback with respect to the progress that was previously made : “ gender equality is still almost a century away from being achieved with the current rate of change. ” for this reason, studies and research such as those which are going to be presented here today and tomorrow assessing the challenges and evaluating the policies that lead us to the path towards gender equality, are of the utmost importance in order to accelerate the necessary change. several central banks have

aml ), a proposal for a new international ifc forum, tax information exchange agreements ( tieas ) and double taxation agreements ( dtas ) and legislation. the briefs which appear in the newsletter are, as you will see, contributed by your colleagues in the industry, as well as by officials. we urge you to submit your own views and information, in reaction to what you read in the newsletter, as well as original material. the dialogue which this conference permits is very important in helping to craft fruitful responses to the changing international environment. we the regulators need to be continuously updated on the opportunities and interests that you the active agents see for yourselves, and the mechanisms that will facilitate your activities. you all need to understand the requirements for maintaining a first class financial centre, so that you can plan your strategies accordingly. in the end, both sides have the same objective, to cement the international reputation of barbados ’ financial centre by attracting only the best run companies to our shores. we welcome you all to this second annual ibfs conference. we have an agenda that is focussed on the issues that are most current, and we have an opportunity here to continue our public - private sector dialogue on the way forward. we have the collective will, and today we expect to further dialogue and investigate the ways by which we can further expand the ibfs sector. bis central bankers ’ speeches