Mr Ian Macfarlane, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, noted in a recent speech that, between June 1991 and December 1996, both New Zealand and Australia had enjoyed economic growth of 3.6 percent, and that that growth had been faster than growth in any of the other 16 developed countries against which he compared us, with the exception of  BIS Review 92/1997  -4-  Norway and Ireland.
We must avoid that any easing of tensions in the markets leads to a slackening in the pace of reform. Banking Union, shifting supervision of banks to the European level, combined with a single resolution regime and a common system for deposit protection will reassure citizens and markets that a common, high level of prudential regulation is being consistently applied.