3 bis central bankers'speeches i say this, with full recognition of the daunting challenges facing the industry. but our challenges are not without silver linings – which, if we are smart and nimble, we can harness to our advantage. global growth is very unlikely to pick up to the levels that we saw in the heady days before the financial crisis. but asia will remain the most dynamic region in the world. its middle class is rapidly growing and its businesses are expanding across the region. both of these will mean healthy demand for a range of financial services. financial regulation has become tougher across the board. and as a regulator i say this for good reason. but from a competitive position, our financial institutions are well - placed because of their larger buffers they built up and more prudent risk management practices they adopted. technology will disrupt existing value chains in financial services. but it will also open up new avenues of growth. it will intensify competition from non - bank players and non - financial institutions, but also create new pathways for our financial institutions to access markets that were previously difficult to reach. while the prospects for the financial sector are good, the outcome is by no means certain. there is much that we need to do – together – to realise the potential and secure a good outcome. next month, mas will announce details of the industry transformation map for financial services. i will not give away the details here, but i can say that building up skills, competencies, and deep expertise is a critical part of the effort. if we want to transform the industry, we must start by transforming our human capital. setting competency standards and certifying the programmes to achieve these standards are ibf ’ s raison d ’ etre. empowering our finance professionals with the requisite skills and preparing them to take on the jobs of the future is at the heart of everything that ibf does. i am therefore pleased to announce the launch of the ibf standards for future - enabled skills. these are the generic skills that will become increasingly important across a range of finance jobs in the future. these are the skills our professionals will need to thrive and grow in a digital future. they will complement the domain expertise that are unique to industry segments. we developed with active industry collaboration, this new set of standards which will focus on areas like data science, human centered design, tools for innovation, agile approaches to technology, and risk and governance in a digital world.

mar guðmundsson : iceland – recent economic developments, conditions and outlook keynote address by mr mar guðmundsson, governor of the central bank of iceland, at the 51st annual general meeting of the central bank of iceland, reykjavik, 29 march 2012. * * * prime minister ; minister of finance ; chairman ; directors and ambassadors ; ladies and gentlemen : as we convene for the 51st annual general meeting of the central bank of iceland, the economic recovery that began late in 2010 is gaining momentum in spite of international headwinds, while inflation has been higher and more persistent than was considered likely last year. it is important, too, to note that inflation is driven much more strongly by domestic factors than it was around this time last year, with wages rising in excess of increases in productivity and the nominal exchange rate declining in the recent term. according to preliminary estimates, gdp grew by 3. 1 % in 2011. in international terms, this compares well, as output growth in the oecd averaged 2 % last year. however, it should be borne in mind that the economic recovery began later in iceland than in most oecd countries. business investment and private consumption contributed equally to growth, about 2 percentage points each. the contribution from factors was negative, however. this growth was not borrowed, either : last year ’ s underlying current account surplus measured roughly 3 % of gdp. in some respects, the composition of last year ’ s output growth lays a sound foundation for continued economic recovery. growth in business investment is an important factor, contributing over 25 % in 2011. business investment measured 9½ % of gdp during the year. this is somewhat below the 30 - year pre - crisis average of 13 %, but the good news is that in q4 the ratio of business investment to gdp was up to 12. 2 %. of course, business investment should rise up above the average in a conventional upswing. but our upswing, as that of most other countries hit hard by the financial crisis, is not conventional. iceland suffered a deep banking and currency crisis in 2008. research shows that the contraction following such a twin crisis is usually deeper and more protracted than a contraction following either one of these crises. in addition, research shows that the economic recovery following a financial crisis is generally weaker than after a normal recession, as domestic debt levels are high. and finally, studies show that the post - crisis recovery of investment is usually slower than usual if the investment level was high