. in addition to that, we have formulated a quantitative reference value for money growth. one of the aims of publishing our monetary policy strategy is to make our policy decisions transparent. second, the ecb has to publish an annual report in which, inter alia, the monetary policy of the previous and current year are discussed. the president of the ecb presents the ecb ’ s annual report to the european council meeting in the composition of the ministers of finance and economy ( the ecofin council ) and to the european parliament, which may hold a general debate on the basis of the report. the president and other members of the ecb ’ s executive board may be heard by the competent committees of the european parliament. the president has agreed to appear before the european parliament at least four times a year. third, the ecb has to report on its activities at least quarterly. it has been decided to go beyond this requirement and to publish a monthly bulletin. it is my view that the main way to achieve accountability is through being transparent and open. in passing, i note that transparency also enhances the effectiveness of the central bank. a central bank that is better understood is also more successful. apart from the activities i have already mentioned, transparency is achieved in several ways. every month, immediately after the first of the fortnightly governing council meetings, the president and i give a press conference. the conference starts with a comprehensive introductory statement by the president, in which he explains the decisions taken by the governing council and the underlying analysis and arguments. this introductory statement is published immediately on the ecb ’ s internet web site ( www. ecb. int ). this is followed by a question and answer session attended by several hundred journalists. the questions and answers are also published on the internet shortly afterwards. all the members of the governing council frequently make public speeches, give interviews and contribute to journals and books. thousands of people visit the ecb and the national central banks each year and, for our part, we and our staff attend many conferences and other public events. the ecb has been criticised, sometimes heavily, for a lack of transparency and for being unaccountable. i could not disagree more, as you might expect from listening to me. one of the most important criticisms is that we do not publish the minutes of the meetings of the governing council. i would maintain, however, that the introductory statements at the press conferences are similar to what other central banks call minutes, with

k c chakrabarty : impact of global financial crisis on financial consumers – global and indian perspective on need for consumer protection – role of ombudsmen address by dr k c chakrabarty, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the annual conference of the international network of financial services ombudsman schemes – info 2011, vancouver, 21 september 2011. * * * assistance provided by shri rajesh verma and shri d. g. kale in preparation of this address is gratefully acknowledged. introduction mr. douglas melville, chairman info 2011, all the delegates attending the annual conference of info, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me immense pleasure to be here in british columbia and particularly, vancouver, the beautiful city and share my thoughts on a subject that has occupied centre stage ever since the global financial system has been hit by crisis leading to concerns being raised about the efficacy of laws, regulations and their implementation with the stated objective of protecting the consumer. all the ombudsmen who are present here may definitely be exercised over the limited role they may be able to play in such situations. nonetheless, it would be worthwhile looking at certain fundamental issues which are at the root of the need for financial consumer protection. the focus of current international discourse is on financial sector stability. it may not be out of place to recall what the great american president abraham lincoln had to say “ if we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it ”. financial sector stability, as we all know, in simple terms, is the absence of instability in the financial system. as a policy objective, it refers to the avoidance of financial crisis as also to the ability of the financial system to limit, contain and deal with the emergence of imbalances before they constitute a threat to the economic processes. financial sector stability also has deep linkages to the principle of financial consumer protection. securing the customer as i come from india, i would like to convey the message of mahatma gandhi who said “ a customer is the most important visitor on our premises. he is not dependent on us. we are dependent on him. he is not an interruption in our work – he is the purpose of it. we are not doing him a favour by serving him. he is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to serve him ”. thus, irrespective of whether the business has good or bad