law laid down exactly what assets the snb was permitted to invest in and what securities were eligible as collateral in lombard business. in future, the national bank will be responsible for making these decisions itself. at the time when the new law enters into force, we shall publish two directives. one will spell out the technical preconditions for our monetary operations ; the other will set out how we shall use our extended investment policy scope. my colleague, philipp hildebrand, in his address will present our first ideas on this subject. the new law vests specific responsibilities in the snb with respect to the oversight of payment and securities settlement systems. up to now, our oversight of the sic interbank payment system was based on a contractual relationship. as from next year, our responsibilities in this domain will be based on the law and will extend to the oversight of all major payment and settlement systems. my colleague, niklaus blattner, will discuss this subject in more detail in his remarks. the new law also provides that the snb shall issue implementing regulations in the area of minimum reserves, statistics and the oversight of payment and settlement systems. the draft of an ordinance has already been submitted to the interested parties for consultation. in the field of minimum reserves and statistics we intend in principle to take up the provisions already existing in the federal law on banks and savings banks and the federal law on investment funds. as regards the oversight of payment and settlement systems, we are advancing into totally new territory, where for the time being only the main principles have been defined. this implies pioneering work in the implementation.

mark w olson : the banking industry in 2002 after a decade of change speech by mr mark w olson, member of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, before the first annual convention of the ohio bankers league, columbus, ohio, 12 november 2002. * * * many of us began our careers in the financial services industry during an era when bank and thrift executives saw each other as both business competitors and political foes. i distinctly remember one experience i had as a member of the american bankers association's government relations committee in 1979. at our first meeting of the year, the " quarter - point differential " that thrift institutions were allowed under regulation q was the banking industry's top political priority. for those of you too young to remember, regulation q established the maximum allowable interest rate that could be paid on deposit accounts, which at the time was a quarter point higher for thrifts. this first annual meeting of the ohio bankers league following the merger of ohio's banking and thrift trade associations is emblematic of the changes that have taken place in these two industries. and this event presents a good opportunity to review today's depository financial service industries in the context of a decade of major change. to begin, let's review the highlights of the past decade. first, there was the bank and thrift crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. many banks and thrifts failed, and many others were weakened to the point that they became acquisition targets. the congress and the regulators responded forcefully with the federal institutions reform, recovery and enforcement act ( firrea ) in 1989, and the federal deposit insurance corporation improvement act ( fdicia ) in 1991. these legislative initiatives restricted banking practices, limited the supervisors'discretion in dealing with weak banks, imposed new regulatory requirements - - including prompt corrective action - - and strengthened supervisory oversight overall. beyond the bank and thrift crisis in this country, there were also indications that banks of other nations followed different norms of capital adequacy, which had implications for competitive equity and for the overall soundness of the global banking system. the g - 10 nations responded with the basel accord, a single, fairly simple global standard that was implemented in the early 1990s. the basel standards have become somewhat less simple over the years and are again under review. but achieving international agreement on both components of capital and a risk - based approach to capital adequacy was a major achievement. a second force