bank support. dear colleagues and dear friends in chisinau, you can be sure of the nbr ’ s full support in the national bank of moldova ’ s endeavour to align to european standards and practices. ladies and gentlemen, distinguished audience, the primary objective of a european central bank is to pursue price stability in the domestic economy. the outcome of the 2008 crisis strengthened the idea that ensuring financial stability is not at odds with achieving the primary objective, but is even beneficial in this respect. fulfilling this objective essentially hinges on central bank independence – political, legal, functional. this is a wide - ranging topic. please allow me, however, to elaborate only on a few ideas about monetary policy independence ; it implies decisions particularly with regard to the key policy rate, the exchange rate policy, international reserve management, setting prudential requirements on minimum required reserves in the banking system. also worth mentioning is the central bank ’ s role as agent when it comes to borrowing via issues of government securities conducted by 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches fiscal authorities on the primary market. at the same time, a central bank manages liquidity in the economy by granting credit against eligible collateral, consisting especially in government securities, and may resort to extraordinary interventions for the purpose of ensuring an adequate level of liquidity, for example via quantitative easing programmes, purchasing financial assets – government securities traded on the secondary market – and holding such instruments in its own portfolio. the simple listing of these areas in the monetary policy scope suggests that we are dealing with decisions on highly - technical, sophisticated mechanisms and instruments, based on complex information, working correctly only in an environment of high professionalism. central bank independence, on the basis of a clear mandate, is therefore of the essence. one field where this is all the more obvious, because it has to do with competition on the global market, is the management of forex reserves. in principle, they ensure – especially in the case of emerging economies – the resources to overcome external imbalances and to safeguard a relative stability of the domestic currency ’ s exchange rate around economic fundamentals. the reallocation of reserves for discretionary use and their monetisation strongly erode these essential equilibria, significantly impairing market functionality and the credibility of the central bank and of any government, ultimately to the detriment of society itself. maintaining and managing an adequate level of international reserves, through the competence and professionalism of the central bank, shelter the country from terrible crises

two key areas : improving public resource management and supporting the development and maintenance of a stable and transparent economic and regulatory environment so as to foster private sector activities. other institutions such as the oecd and the world bank are involved in corporate governance, with the latter formulating a set of principles such as ethics and transparency, as well as accountability. to sum up, i should emphasise that corporate governance at present is a matter of greatest concern to the business environment, just the same as we, those involved in formulating macroeconomics, are concerned more broadly with economic governance. bis central bankers ’ speeches i believe that emphasis now should be placed primarily on discipline, fiscal discipline in particular, but also on a shift in culture. i also like to add two words that i see essential when speaking about economic governance : stability and confidence. in my view, all efforts these days should be targeted to maintaining stability and restore confidence. thank you all! bis central bankers ’ speeches