This is particularly evident in the European Union, where financial markets have integrated rapidly and cross-border entities have become much more important since the introduction of the euro, while at the same time the EU’s supervisory framework has not kept pace and remained fragmented along national lines. The flipside of responsibility is accountability.
Given their responsibilities for financial stability, what will be the criteria by which we judge the performance of central banks? This is very important for a public agency, in particular an agency that enjoys a high degree of independence from daily political influence and can therefore not be held accountable at the ballot box.