movement, to undertake this search. because, you need to find answers to some inconvenient questions. they are as follows : a. has the co - operative movement retained its relevance after its 130 years existence in india? b. has the indian psyche grown beyond the need for “ one person one vote for mutual benefit ” idiom? c. has the co - operative movement captured the imagination of younger generation? d. has it produced enough qualified and energetic young leaders to carry forward the movement? e. how the movement can insulate itself from the trends that as the cab study pointed out reduce the cooperativeness of co - operatives? 36. i would strongly urge the sector, if not in this seminar, to find answers to these questions. 37. another area where the cooperativeness of co - operatives is missing relates to the federations ’ role. several committees have suggested that the co - operative banking sector need umbrella organisations to facilitate, among others, funds management, it services, capacity building and strategic guidance. i hear about only one serious attempt has been made by the gujarat federation so far in that direction. it is a matter of regret that federations could not so far come forward to activise such umbrella organisations. i look forward to the federations moving ahead on this very useful, self - helping initiative. conclusion 38. to conclude, let me say that we do recognize that co - operative banks are unique in terms of their structure, clientele and credit delivery. the resilience shown by these banks during their long existence can be leveraged. despite their inherent weaknesses in terms of low capital, poor management and intrusive policies of state, co - operative banks in india have successfully weathered several challenges during their century old existence and continued to grow in the competitive environment which emerged following the economic and financial sector reforms initiated in 1991. rbi has been continuously taking policy measures to strengthen the co - operative banking sector. it is heartening to see that supportive regulatory environment, adoption of technology and re - orientation of business strategy can act as enablers for co - operative banks to contribute more meaningfully. yet, looking into the future, some hard questions relating to maintaining the cooperativeness in co - operatives need to be answered. and federations have to deliver on umbrella organisations. 39. thanking you all for your patient attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

benoit cœure : bond scarcity and the european central bank's asset purchase programme speech by mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the club de gestion financiere d ’ associes en finance, paris, 3 april 2017. * * * accompanying slides i would like to thank fabian eser and niels krieghoff for their contributions to this speech. i remain solely responsible for the opinions contained herein. i am grateful for the opportunity to speak here today at the club de gestion financiere. in my remarks today i would like to address a topic that has received growing attention in recent months, namely the low level of short - term yields of the euro area ’ s safest sovereign bonds and their apparent disconnect with those of overnight index swaps ( ois ). on the face of it, this is not the sort of topic that you would choose to discuss over breakfast. but despite its technical character, i intend to explain that such a disconnect evidences ongoing structural change in the euro area ’ s bond market and could bear consequences for the transmission of our monetary policy. in what follows i will argue that a confluence of factors – some of them of a temporary and some of them of a more permanent nature – is likely to have contributed to this disconnect. one of these factors, as i will show, is probably related to the ecb ’ s asset purchase programme ( app ), which raises the legitimate question of whether our purchases hamper the smooth functioning of financial markets. my answer today will be that we see no such evidence, but that the governing council continues to monitor very carefully the developments in euro area bond and repo markets. let me start with the facts, however. as you can see on slide 2, ois rates and german government bond yields with a two - year maturity have been intimately connected in the past. the reason is that swap dealers tend to use positions in safe government bonds to hedge interest rate risk on swaps. and with securities issued by the german government generally perceived as bearing very little credit risk, we would expect them to be related to swap rates. this is true for all tenors by the way and is not specific to the two - year rate that i am showing as an example on this slide. now, why then have yields of high credit quality bonds – and i refer to german bonds merely for ease