established, as a major policy priority, the development of a sound financial system with strong individual component institutions. the idea is to position the sector as a major growth driver, to support an inclusive broad - based economy with the full implementation of new higher minimum capital requirements by the end of this year. we know that banks are working strenuously to meet this requirement which would help establish a banking industry that is well capitalized to support the much needed economic transformation ghana needs. 5. as the bank of ghana pursues this objective, alongside strengthening the regulatory and supervisory environment to restore confidence and promote stability and integrity of the banking sector, it is important that we also take concrete steps towards implementing cyber security measures to combat financial crime. through the bank ’ s monitoring systems, we have observed the daily attempts by cyber criminals to bypass security controls and exploit vulnerabilities within the cyber and information security defenses of financial systems. we cannot ignore the fact that the increasing use of technology with its attendant interconnectedness has enabled some of these challenges. 6. globally, risks associated with cybercrime on financial systems have increased, notable among them are the financial disruptions arising from cyber - incidents in bangladesh and malaysia. indeed, cyber - attacks have the potential to pose systemic risk by disrupting business operations within the financial sector. for ghana, the threat is growing. a recent study in 2016 disclosed that there were more than 400, 000 malware incidents, 44 million spam incidents, and 280, 000 bot incidents within ghana ’ s financial industry. 7. with this background and the complexities associated with the advancement of technology, it is imperative that the bank of ghana takes steps to counter these threats to ensure the integrity and operational security of the financial system. it is in this regard that the bank of ghana has developed the cyber security directive for financial institutions. the objectives of this directive are to ensure an uninterrupted financial intermediation process through a robust and resilient financial sector and also to boost the trust and confidence of consumers in the banking industry. 8. ladies and gentlemen, we will all agree that the resilience of the financial sector is largely dependent on the soundness of financial institutions and the robustness of the financial market infrastructure. the cyber security directive for financial institutions does not fall short of addressing these objectives. among others, the directive seeks to establish the conduct and operational guidelines for the cyber and information security environment. specifically, it sets out procedures for governance, risk management

to do so, sitting it out will not be a sufficient strategy to tackle these dynamic inefficiencies. to address them, public economics may naturally draw procedural policies, such as quotas. yet, substantive economic policies are equally key in achieving sustainable forms of gender parity. in a seminal work first published in 1949 which remains uncomfortably relevant in today ’ s world, simone de beauvoir noted that the “ abstract legal framework alone does not suffice to define the concrete situation of women ; this situation depends to a large extent on the economic role women play in society ”. 11 breaking the still prevailing “ glass ceiling ” requires bottom - to - top empowerment encompassing targeted fiscal, social and labor market policies as well as educational initiatives. 12 as prof profeta makes clear in her book, the political economy angle and the public economics view cannot be meaningfully separated as they are constantly interacting in feedback and amplification loops : the degree of gender diversity in decision - making bodies shapes economic policies, which in turn influence progress, and sadly sometimes also setbacks, in terms of gender parity in many areas of public and private life - and vice versa. thus, i hope that we will be able to shed some light on both of these perspectives and their interactions during the remaining time of this session by sharing in our distinguished panelists ’ personal, professional, and institutional experiences. see profeta ( 2020 ), introduction, chapter 2 and chapter 5 for a discussion of the caveats associated with the difference between “ nurture ” and “ nature ”. 8 for example, see alesina et al. ( 2013 ). see diouf and pepin ( 2017 ) for the specific context of monetary policy. 9 to be sure, the author explicitly acknowledges that the term gender encompasses more than the simple dichotomy male vs. female. 10 for example, by 2019, only 8 % ( 14 out of 173 ) of all central banks were headed by a woman ( istrefi, 2019 ). 94 % of all european central bank ’ s governing council members serving between 1998 and 2018 were men - and other major central banks do hardly any better. see also profeta ( 2020b ) for status quo bias and riboni and ruge - murcia ( 2008 ) on inertia in committee decision - making settings. 11 the original french text reads as follows : “ [ l ] e droit abstrait ne suffit pas a definir la