In formal terms, the General Council may only severe a member of the Executive Board from his or her appointment if “…he no longer meets the requirements which are made on him to be able to carry out his duties or if he has been guilty of serious misconduct.” 2 The legislation strengthens the Riksbank’s independence and credibility for monetary policy. For example, it should not be possible for those in power to be able to groundlessly dismiss a member of the Executive Board for the purpose of appointing their “own” decision-makers. As the question of accountability is stated in law, it is not actually the Riksbank’s task to take a stand on how this should be achieved. However, what we can do – and also strive for – is to create the best possible conditions for accountability. We do this by being as open and clear as we can. This makes it easier for outsiders to critically examine how monetary policy is conducted and how well we live up to our principles. 1  Sveriges Riksbank Act (1983:1385), Chapter 8, Article 1. 2  The Instrument of Government, Chapter 9, Article 13. 4  BIS Review 62/2007  There are also certain formal requirements for providing information to our principal. Our tasks include, for instance, presenting a written report on monetary policy to the Riksdag Committee on Finance at least twice a year. In connection with this, the Committee also holds a hearing with the Riksbank Governor.
Stefan Ingves: The relationship between the Swedish Riksbank and the Riksdag Speech by Mr Stefan Ingves, Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank, at the Sveriges Riksdag (Swedish parliament), Stockholm, 8 June 2007. *  *  *  Independence and opportunities for evaluation and accountability Let me begin by thanking you for the invitation to today’s conference. Of course it is both an honour and an inspiration to have the opportunity to discuss in such knowledgeable company the Riksbank’s relationship to the Riksdag (the Swedish parliament) and what this means for monetary policy. In recent decades many central banks have become increasingly independent in relation to the political system. This also applies to the Riksbank. At the same time, these institutions, which have often been fairly closed and secretive, have become more open and clear with regard to their objectives, motives and means. Many central banks now conduct monetary policy with more or less explicit price stability targets and the Riksbank was one of the first to introduce this type of quantified target for inflation at the beginning of the 1990s. Both our price stability objective and our independence have been written in the law since 1999. This contributes to strengthening the credibility of monetary policy. The fact that increased independence has gone hand in hand with greater openness and clarity – what is usually called transparency in central bank language – is not particularly strange. For an independent authority to gain general acceptance and legitimacy, there must be good opportunities for evaluation and accountability.