investors will be acting in an investor centric way. a strong investor culture, based on establishing trust and confidence with investors could be what sets a firm apart in an increasingly digital investment environment. a prevailing theme is also the impact of different fee arrangements for retail investors as compared with the more favourable terms offered to institutional investors. of course, there can be underpinning reasons for this, such as economies of scale and so on. notwithstanding this, a firm which has strong investor centric culture, will be challenging themselves on such fee arrangements to assess whether they are justifiable and appropriate. building an effective culture for retail investors understanding and addressing these challenges will require action across the board by firms, industry representatives, policy makers and regulators. without action to address these issues, we risk increasing disengagement from retail investors with traditional capital markets. we know that the trust of investors is hard earned, and easily lost. as we seek to encourage greater retail participation in capital markets it will be important that all of us play our role in supporting that trust. before i conclude, i would like to spend a few minutes discussing the challenge of how to navigate the changing and evolving environment in a way that maintains and builds trust to the extent that new retail investors may be attracted to engage and invest. as you might expect, for regulators and public policy makers, this is primarily about better investor outcomes, ensuring their interests are upheld, and client assets are protected. high quality regulation plays a vital role in supporting well - functioning markets. it ensures that investors are protected and that risks to financial stability are identified and mitigated. our interventions are intended to : promote and safeguard the integrity of the funds sector and maintain confidence in the financial system more generally ; and identify and mitigate systemic risks which may arise. high quality regulation plays a vital role in supporting well - functioning capital markets. there is a direct link between effective regulation and ultimately better investor outcomes. regulatory intervention should : support innovation and product development to meet the changing needs of investors and the broader evolution of the global financial sector ; and 4 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches be appropriately calibrated in order to achieve the right outcomes without being unduly onerous on market participants. ultimately, any inefficiencies that may be created will be borne either by the end investors or users of the financial service. at the start of my remarks today, i noted the similarity of purpose that both the international investment funds association and iosco have in

33 5. 58 - 1. 25 new zealand 2 - year fixed 6. 19 7. 79 - 1. 60 germany fixed ( > 10 years ) 4. 49 5. 33 - 0. 84 sweden variable 2. 16 4. 18 - 2. 02 * * * * sources : bloomberg ; thomson reuters ; national data * data : to april for australia, us and canada ; to march for uk and nz ; and to february for germany. * * in the uk, variable rate and 1 – 5 year fixed - rate loans account for approximately the same proportion of the market. in assessing the level of global interest rates, it is important to look not just at official rates, but at a broader spectrum of rates faced by borrowers. we don ’ t have data on housing rates going back 150 years, but it is clear that they are not at the very low levels of official rates. in most countries, including australia, they are around 1½ - 2 percentage points below their decade averages – that is, low, but not at extremes ( table 2 ). for corporate borrowers, interest rates are not unusually low. in fact, in most developed economies, interest rates faced by corporations in capital markets are, if anything, still a little above decade averages, due to the large increase in risk premiums ( table 3 ). table 3 : non - financial corporate bond yields * maturity 10 - year average current rate rate deviation from average australia 1 - 5 years 7. 29 6. 62 0. 67 united states 5 - 10 years 6. 59 6. 26 0. 34 canada 1 - 10 years 5. 37 5. 75 - 0. 38 united kingdom 5 - 10 years 7. 04 6. 43 0. 61 euro area 7 - 10 years 6. 00 5. 50 0. 50 new zealand 10 year * * 8. 66 7. 84 0. 83 * industrial corporates * * a - rated bonds sources : bloomberg ; merrill lynch other monetary measures let me now turn to the other unconventional measures central banks have undertaken. these are often grouped in the popular press under the generic title of “ quantitative easing ” or “ printing money ”, but they really fall into three distinct categories : • measures to add to banks ’ reserve balances ; • measures to reduce the term structure of interest rates ; and • measures to support specific credit markets and / or take credit risk onto central bank balance sheets. the us fed has coined the term “ credit easing ” 1 to