See the Governor’s November 1999 remarks to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/commttee/r2791.pdf. BIS Review 10/2004  3  A key reason that we think it is a useful concept stems from our conviction that, as noted earlier, it is the level of interest rates which does most of the work in monetary policy.
These reports gravely misrepresented the reality of that monitoring, explicitly discrediting Banco de Portugal's exercise of the supervisory function. As I stated in my letter to this Committee, it is my responsibility as Governor of Banco de Portugal to defend the reputation of the institution and protect public confidence in the effectiveness of banking supervision.