, through grandfathering, streaming, and regular promotion, we have been able to advance more than 50 members of the bank's staff. it is also important for you to do your part and find ways to elevate yourself. the personal development plans that you have worked with your managers to design are intended to guide you. central banking is dynamic and ever - evolving, and so are the many career paths within the organisation, including economics, financial regulation, 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches banking and finance, information technology, information management, communications, cultural outreach, accounting, facilities management, human resource management, law, strategic planning, accounting and auditing, security, and foreign exchange management. it is, therefore, important that whatever your field, you commit to enhancing your skills and using them to help the bank achieve its objectives. if you do, i, and my management team, commit to continuing to find ways to reward you for it. empower we must also empower you. this is the natural follow - on when we have a competent, capable, and committed staff. whatever your level in the organisation, whether you're frontline or technical staff, you should feel empowered to use your initiative to address issues and solve problems as they arise. now, don't misquote me and say that i have given anyone carte blanche to do as they like. the same way i won't be drafting legal contracts, i don't expect you to be calling press conferences to discuss the state of the economy. what i am talking about is actively looking for ways we can improve what we do and how we do it and willingly sharing those ideas with your managers because great ideas come from both the top down and the bottom up. and of course, in the moment, if you are in a position to assist a caller or visitor to the bank with something that they need, we want you to do so rather than view it as outside your purview. on our end, we as managers must make you feel comfortable and confident sharing your ideas with us or acting as ambassadors for the organisation rather than feel constrained by your specific job title or grade level. that means, in part, ensuring that you have a broad awareness of the bank's various activities and programmes, and in part, giving you the latitude to share that information with others. on your end, you must feel a sense of ownership of the bank and its work beyond your specific niche and

both the micro and macro level face no shortage of challenges. internationally, with economic growth slowing in the major developed economies, the problems in international credit markets are still serious, and inflation rates still strong, and although there are signs of some deflationary trends, the task for policy makers is as delicate as any faced in many years. though the region has over the years substantially improved its macroeconomic fundamentals and is better suited to face external shocks, there will be fallout from the current turmoil. market volatility will undoubtedly lead to sharp downward growth revisions for 2008 and 2009, as the decline in global demand will tend to reduce regional exports of goods and services. in addition, the fall in interest rates in the u. s. will impact on both fixed and floating exchange rate regimes, while the decline in global liquidity will force curtailment of foreign direct investment and cross border flows. how we respond to the problems posed to us by the recent upheaval will be important for the robustness of the regional economy going forward. though the direct impact on the regional domestic banking sector has not been significant, largely because of the lack of sophistication and the relative of risk aversion if our regional banks, there are lessons we can draw from these events. we must respond to these changes by further strengthening our efforts at maintaining financial system stability with adequate rules and regulations while avoiding over - regulation. it happened after enron with sarbannes oxley which tended to go overboard without, some would say, achieving sufficient strengthening of the system – the results of which we are seeing today. many have now related the current crisis to market over - exuberance, coupled with less than all - encompassing regulation which was necessary to monitor the very rapid changes in derivative and structured finance instruments. the innovations and developments which spawned such instruments increased the complexity of financial transactions and made their traceability difficult. such changes were also supported by increasing levels of excess liquidity, low interest rates in the global financial market and the increased demand for variations in financial instruments, given different consumers'risk profiles. consequently, there was a further blurring of financial intermediation roles between the traditional banks and non - bank market players. risk - shifting and risk transfer eventually forced the collapse we are witnessing today. what these developments have demonstrated is that adequate regulation of the financial system in the us is important to the rest of the world. while these guidelines are set in the developed world the failure of regulation impacts us all