growth rates are required to reduce the levels of unemployment in a meaningful manner. role of chartered accountants in the most recent world competiveness report, the deteriorating state capacity was one of the areas that contributed to the slide in the country ’ s ranking to 52nd place out of 144 countries that were ranked. some of the more problematic areas identified included an inefficient bureaucracy, corruption and policy instability. on the positive side south africa was recognised to be at the forefront of governance and was ranked number one in the following areas : • strength of auditing and reporting ; • regulation of securities exchange ; and • efficacy of corporate boards ; it is therefore evident that south africa ’ s auditing and accounting professionals are among the best in the world, and i do believe that accountants have an important role to play in ensuring that some of the structural challenges in this country are addressed effectively. the profession can make a tangible contribution towards ensuring that the public sector is capacitated to deal with its many challenges, using the skills and aptitude that members bis central bankers ’ speeches acquire during their academic and practical training, and which include skills such as analytical ability, professionalism, integrity, understanding complexity, etc. it is also important that members of the profession respond positively to the call of public service and that members do not only become service providers to the public sector, but that they also join the ranks of the public service in order to address the shortage of skills within that sector. in this context they have much to contribute to root out corruption, design monitoring and early warning systems so as to ensure improved service delivery, institute controls that would minimise instances of wasteful and fruitless expenditure, design reports so that politicians and officials have access to accurate and timely information, and which should contribute to improved decision - making and policy outcomes. conclusion in conclusion, in order for us as a country to move forward it is important that we all own up to the responsibility that we have to ensure that south africa reaches its full potential and that it thrives and succeeds at all levels. our challenges are daunting but not insurmountable! if we all display a positive ‘ can do ’ attitude and one that places the national interest first, we can achieve higher levels of economic growth, reduce the stubborn levels of unemployment and successfully address the dual challenge of poverty and inequality. the time has come for us to adopt an attitude of ‘ south africa first ’ and to respond affirmatively to a similar challenge jf kennedy

over half of this is accounted for by open - ended funds, most of which promise daily liquidity to their investors. such funds have generally been stable in times of stress – during the crisis they experienced relatively modest outflows. unlike the banking sector they are not in the main highly leveraged. but they have grown markedly since 2008 and, with the search for yield, have become active in more illiquid and volatile markets while still in the majority of cases promising daily liquidity to their investors. we do therefore have to ask not just whether individual funds are properly managed and can cope with redemption pressures. we also have to ask whether this increasingly important element of market - based finance, as a whole or in large part, would under stress transmit pressure to the rest of the system, for example, through fire sales of assets. and whether there needs to be a stronger link between a fund ’ s promise of liquidity to its investors and the nature of the assets in which it is invested. the financial stability board and iosco are now taking forward important work to address these broader potentially systemic risks. this issue illustrates more generally that as markets innovate and market - based finance develops we need to remain very alert to possible systemic implications and keep our eye on the management of risk. the uk exit from the european union i have discussed the fundamental challenges around ethics and risk that are crucial to building societal trust in and support for modern, international financial markets. i am however conscious that i am the guest tonight of the association for financial markets in europe and the clue is in the entire name. i therefore should perhaps say a few words on the challenges for europe ’ s financial markets that may be posed by the exit of the uk from the european union. we do not yet know what arrangements will govern the trade of financial services and the integration of financial markets between the uk and the eu once the uk has completed its exit. that will be one of many issues to be determined by governments in negotiations over the coming years. nor do we know how the financial sector in the uk and elsewhere in europe will respond to the process and outcome of those negotiations. there are many possible answers to both questions. what i think is clearer is that this is not a zero sum game. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / publications / pages / speeches / default. aspx it is certainly possible – indeed some would say likely – that some wholesale financial market activities currently