My reluctance to go down that route stems from a concern that we would slip towards a degree of individualism where members were no longer listening to each other. It would not be possible for members to polish their statements after the meeting, as they would then be able to tweak their text, ever so slightly of course, in the light of the market reaction to our decision and so on. So highly polished statements would be brought to the meeting, with perhaps even a degree of competition in the depth of the analysis or the beauty of the prose. But the very point of a committee is that we 26 should listen to each other, and then make up our own minds. That includes trying to persuade one’s  unexpired parts of the terms of existing Committee members, but do not include the terms of Howard Davies and David Walton. 25  For example, Weber, A., 2007, “Monetary policy strategy and communication”, speech at the Deutsche Bundesbank/Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland conference on “Monetary policy strategy: old issues and new challenges”, Frankfurt, May 2007. 26  See section on “Does discussion help?” in Lombardelli, Proudman and Talbot, op. cit., page 199. 6  BIS Review 66/2007  colleagues. Over the years, 27 I have definitely seen occasions where individual members have altered their position during the course of a meeting.
Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Role of central banks in emerging economies Speech by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the Svein Gjedrem Colloquium, Oslo, 18 November 2010. *  *  *  Introduction Central banks continue to be challenged with changing demands as the environment before us is rapidly being transformed. These fundamental and pronounced changes have prompted calls for a review of the role of central banks in the financial system and in the economy. Frequently, such calls have been precipitated during a financial crisis, as was the case during the Asian financial crisis and more recently during this current global financial crisis. However, such institutional reforms undertaken in periods of exceptional conditions risks influencing the nature and direction of the reforms. While the reforms following a crisis may address the immediate term demands, of equal importance is the medium and the longer term implications of the reforms. Perhaps, an important lesson for central banks is that such reinvention and modernisation should be undertaken during the good times so that we will not be subjected to such changes during the worst of times. In essence, in such a dynamic environment, central banks need to continue to adjust and evolve to remain relevant and, thus, useful. It is my great honour to be invited to speak at the Norges Bank Colloquium held in honour of Governor Svein Gjedrem.