intriguingly, it looked at " heatwaves and meteor showers " - something we were in short supply of here over the past summer. back to the present, i am delighted that the central bank and financial services authority of ireland has been involved in the development, organisation and hosting of this latest conference. i know that we have benefited significantly from collaborating with the ecb and cfs in this field and i look forward to further developing these links in the future. all three organisers certainly set themselves a significant task when they undertook to " coordinate and stimulate top - level and policy - relevant research that significantly contributes to our understanding of financial system structures and integration ". from the programme for this event, however, i can see that you have certainly provided plenty of material to stimulate debate and consider policy implications on issues related to asset management, private equity firms and international capital flows. there has, of course, been a considerable amount of innovation recently in the private equity and hedge funds industries, and in complex financial instruments and asset management strategies generally. these innovations serve to more fully complete the financial markets landscape, although when used imprudently can present extra risks, as evident in recent market developments. this innovation has been led, to a significant degree, by market participants and has presented a number of challenges for policymakers, especially regarding the implications of risk transfer developments, valuation strategies and market disclosure rules for financial stability and the efficacy of policy. there is much that central bankers and academics can learn from market participants in these areas and a collaboration such as this research network provides an excellent forum for a sharing of ideas and an opportunity to contribute to these debates. turning to just a couple of the issues for discussion at this conference, the performance of, and risk and disclosure practices in, the hedge fund industry were of course a major focus of attention earlier this year, but have been pushed out of the headlines somewhat in recent months. however, i am sure that they will return - albeit hopefully not in an environment of disruptive market conditions. we can expect a renewed focus on the risks, which hedge funds can pose for highly - exposed counterparties and for markets generally, and on the type and extent of policy responses that can realistically be taken to help alleviate some of these risks. earlier in the year, market disclosure issues and questions about the adequacy of the indirect model of regulation - where the focus was on the exposures of counterparties, especially banks, to hedge fund risks - was a major

hence, the regulatory approach has remained gradual and in line with the evolution of the sector … ” “ in the new microfinance strategic framework 2011 – 15, sbp has laid out a detailed strategy to promote sustainable growth of the sector. the strategy ’ s effectiveness and success hinges on growth dynamism fundamentally coming from microfinance operators themselves. the role of sbp is to develop the banking infrastructure, to encourage the use of successful global practices, and to provide the regulatory and supervisory mechanism that enable mfbs to develop viable business models ”. 14. we shall soon have the pleasure of hearing our distinguished speaker, professor banerjee ’ s, thoughts on this subject. i am sure his lecture today will introduce us with something special on the topic, not only because of his extensive research on the subject but also because of candidness of his approach. perhaps, not many of us will have witnessed this openness and honesty of thoughts earlier – the kind that is evident from the last sentence of the concluding chapter of his most recent book titled “ poor economics ”. let me quote that very sentence for you : “ at least we can stop pretending that there is some solution at hand and instead join hands with millions of well - intentioned people across the world – elected officials and bureaucrats, teachers and ngo workers, academics and entrepreneurs – in the quest for the many ideas, big and small, that will eventually take us to that world where no one has to live on 99 cents per day ”. 15. now let ’ s turn to our guest speaker himself. ladies and gentlemen, we are honoured to have with us, dr. abhijit vinayak banerjee, the ford foundation international professor of economics at the massachusetts institute of technology, usa. his teaching and research have won him accolades the world over and he stands as a giant in his profession. just to introduce him to our guests here, dr. banerjee has attended the university of calcutta, jawaharlal nehru university and harvard university, successfully earning his ph. d from the latter. 16. during 1988 to 1992, he taught as an assistant professor of economics at princeton university. he moved to harvard university in 1992 as assistant professor of economics, before joining the m. i. t. in 1993 as pentti j. k. kouri career development associate professor of economics. he became associate professor of economics in 1994 and then professor of economics in 1996. he is the co - founder of