evidence of appropriate oversight of key issues ( e. g. failure to approve plans, slippage in remediation deadlines ) ; and ( ii ) inadequate reporting to the board ; and inadequacies in risk appetite frameworks. in relation to the compliance function, the key issues relate to : incomplete registers of obligations ( i. e., the firm not identifying its compliance obligations ) ; incomplete compliance mandates ( e. g., the pcf holder i. e. the ‘ head of compliance ’ role holder, is not the effective head of compliance in that he / she only had oversight over certain aspects of compliance rather than the full spectrum of compliance issues ) ; immature compliance functions and a lack of awareness, at board and management level, of the universe of compliance obligations, particularly those specific to the irish entity ; lack of understanding of, or adherence to, international standards and principles for compliance functions and the central bank ’ s corporate governance codes9 ; inadequate compliance monitoring within institutions, including inadequate coverage of prudential compliance matters ; poor compliance monitoring plans which do not provide details on the objectives, timelines and resource needs to monitor or assess compliance in the institution as a whole ; and inadequacies in the reporting to the board and / or audit and risk committees. the long and the short of it is that there is still much more work to be done in many firms to meet minimum regulatory standards and legitimate supervisory expectations. this will obviously continue to be a priority for the central bank, to drive further improvements and enhancements in governance and control arrangements, such that they are commensurate with the size, scale and complexity of the business. 2018 priorities i will turn now to other priorities for prudential regulation for 2018. we are currently going through our planning process for 2018, as well as developing our longer term strategy for 2019 onwards. while not finalised, it is safe to say that the following areas will feature in our priorities for next year : core supervisory activity as referred to earlier, my number one priority is to ensure that my teams deliver an effective, intrusive, analytical and outcomes - focused approach to supervision. this involves our day to day supervisory team engagement with regulated firms, inspections and analysis – the three core functions of prudential regulation. i will strive to ensure that we continue to improve across these areas. in particular, the material increase in the volume and complexity of data being received by the bank warrants us to enhance our approach to anal

comes with hardly any unwanted implications. rather, it is easy to implement, because there would be no need to upgrade the existing and established t2 system. that is the good news from the wholesale side. now i would like to focus on the retail project. 2 why we need a digital euro the digital euro is currently in the " preparation phase ", as it is called. in this phase, which is scheduled to run until october 2025, our experts are preparing for the possible implementation of a retail digital euro in the euro area. the ecb's governing council will take a decision after this phase and following adoption of the necessary legislation. i am aware that some people have their reservations about the digital euro project. we need to take these reservations seriously and counter people's concerns with compelling arguments. one of the main arguments against a digital euro is that we do not need it at all. in my view, that argument is flawed. our lives are turning increasingly digital. in shops, more and more people prefer to pay with cashless means of payment. and when it comes to online shopping, which is becoming ever more important, we as customers have no choice but to pay electronically. both of these factors mean that cash use is lower than it once was. however, the electronic payment options currently available to euro area households have their deficiencies. some payment cards work only in specific countries. and all the cross - border payment options are currently non - european, which limits our strategic autonomy in a critical infrastructure. that's why, as a service provider to society, we are thinking about offering a digital form of central bank money for the general public. 3 results from a public survey on the digital euro if i could see you now, i would see a group of experts who know exactly what makes cbdc special. and what sets it apart from other digital assets. however, if we look at the digital euro's main target group, the general public, we see significant gaps in their knowledge and understanding. 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches a recent representative survey for the bundesbank showed that this is the case for the german population. 1 only 41 percent of respondents said they had already heard, read or seen anything about the digital euro. by contrast, 59 percent said they knew nothing about it yet. that doesn't come as much of a surprise, though. as long as the final decision on the digital euro has not been taken, it makes little