The first point is how the Fund can improve its surveillance by focusing on how best to reduce the likelihood of crises in emerging markets, in particular, how to help emerging markets better cope with the challenge of the next crisis. The second is our view that the Fund’s surveillance and its works on crisis resolution should recognize the usefulness of national and regional self-insurance efforts that are being pursued by a growing number of countries. And the third is our suggestion that the Fund’s works on crisis prevention and crisis resolution can benefit from a clear separation of these two functions in terms of duties, responsibilities, and decisionmaking, so as to achieve greater effectiveness and accountability. To begin, the consensus seems to be that the Fund has not been doing a good-enough job on crisis prevention and crisis resolution. This is evidenced by a string of financial crises in emerging markets that had happened, which does not reflect well on the Fund’s surveillance mechanism. In addition, dissatisfactions were expressed in the Fund’s perceived lack of consistency and coherence in its approach to crisis resolution, in the shortcomings of its program design and conditionality, and most importantly, in the way political pressure from the major economies were allowed to influence the program content and decisions. In the Thai case, our own experience with IMF involvement was not dissimilar.
Turbo-charging sterling LIBOR transition: why 2020 is the year for action – and what the Bank of England is doing to help Speech given by Andrew Hauser, Executive Director, Markets  International Swaps and Derivatives Association/SIFMA Asset Management Group Benchmark Strategies Forum, London  Wednesday 26 February 2020  I am grateful to Sarah Hall for co-writing this speech – and to Amber Evans, Alastair Hughes, Wayne Leslie, Will Parry, Rhys Phillips, Edwin Schooling Latter, Dave Ramsden and Francesca Zwolinksy for their advice and comments. 1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  Introduction 2020 is a critical year for LIBOR transition. Great progress was made in 2019, particularly in sterling wholesale markets – and I want to give special thanks to the part that ISDA’s support and leadership has played in that. But, with the finish line for LIBOR now clearly in view, there is still a lot of ground to cover – particularly in the cash markets. We need to see another decisive acceleration in effort in 2020 to ensure risk-free rates are adopted across the full range of sterling business, and LIBOR is left behind for good. The motor racing analogy is apt, because LIBOR transition is complex, fast-paced and – above all – a team effort. The green lights came on some time ago, and the private sector has been decisively – and rightly – leading from the front.