for our high - level officials, in 2014. since then, the ethics committee has turned into a truly independent advisory body. while in its first years it was comprised exclusively of former members of the governing council, today the committee only has one former governing council member. the two other members have no previous roles at all at the ecb or in the eurosystem. this outside perspective lends additional credibility to the committee's work and bolsters trust in the committee as an independent body. 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches pretty much in the same vein, the ecb has a solid rules framework for its high - level officials. this rules framework – the single code of conduct – not only establishes state - of - the - art conduct and integrity rules, but also comprises demanding governance standards and related transparency requirements, which ultimately ensure proper accountability. and developments are still ongoing. for example at eu level where an eu ethics body is currently being set up, with the primary mandate to further refine the ethics standards for high - level eu officials. the ecb's ethics framework served as an example for the new body. so we have come a long way on building ethical organisations. as ethics and compliance officers, you perform an indispensable role in safeguarding an ethical culture. but of course, you cannot do it all by yourself. maintaining an ethical culture is not only the job of the compliance officers, it is a task for the whole organisation. it is a task for the whole organisation because ethics and compliance is more than setting up a rule book and monitoring whether everybody is following the rules. because the rules cannot cover every single situation. first of all, the world in which we operate is constantly changing. our organisations are constantly changing. which means that our perceptions of what is ok and what is not ok are also changing. take for example activist behaviour and posts on social media. everyone has the right to voice their political opinion. thank goodness we live in a democracy. but do we want our colleagues, identifying themselves as central bank employees, voicing controversial opinions online that are far removed from our mandates and official standpoints? clearly, this could harm our reputation. similarly, demonstrating against government policies is a democratic right. but we had colleagues who were involved in extinction rebellion activities and who were actively encouraging breaking the law. how should you deal with that? where do you draw the line? although this a very delicate matter, we decided to draw up guidelines,

culture. and last but certainly not least, we can only build an ethical culture if we as a board lead by example. that not only means being compliant at all times, it also means stimulating discussion, and being transparent about your mistakes. for example, some months ago we published an article on how homeowners can finance climate - friendly home improvements, which triggered a lot of public criticism. while the article provided a useful contribution on the highly contested affordability issue, its rather explicit policy conclusion was an error of judgement, and i took full responsibility for that. it's important to set a good example like this and show your staff that it's ok to report mistakes without fear of having their heads chopped off. to sum up : if we are to live up to the high standards we set for ourselves, we need rules, but first and foremost we need an ethical culture. that requires effort from all of us, but your work as compliance officers is especially indispensable. you work hard every day to promote compliance in your organisations. it is not always easy being the voice of compliance in the room. so we need to support each other where we can, and conferences like these are an excellent opportunity to do so. and don't be afraid of amsterdam. but nonetheless, watch your coat. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches