A special welcome and thank you to the distinguished speakers for sharing their thoughts on the topics covered today and tomorrow. This conference is by now well established, as demonstrated by the great interest among central banks around the globe, and the ever increasing participation. 1. The conference is organised along four main themes:  2. Developments in international accounting standards;  3.
Impact of accounting on financial regulation and supervisory reporting;  4. Managing risks on central bank balance sheets; and  5. Governance and financial reporting issues at central banks. On the first topic, the ECB has stepped up its efforts in monitoring international accounting developments over the last two years. There are two reasons underlying this.