•  Finally, as the Governor of a central bank that has placed strong emphasis on disclosure by registered banks, and which sets high standards on its own financial disclosures, it will not surprise you to know that we stress the importance of regular, timely, comprehensive, meaningful and reliable financial disclosures of a company's affairs.
These kinds of principles feature strongly in the Reserve Bank's approach to the supervision of banks in New Zealand. Before going on to explain our approach, and the central role that banks' corporate governance plays in our framework, it may be useful to set the scene by highlighting the key features of the New Zealand financial system.