This has been one of the Committee’s priorities and many significant steps have been taken and will be taken to improve the ownership of the standards and inclusiveness of the processes. For example, the Committee has a long-standing working group that includes representatives from sixteen non-member countries, and we have increased our interaction with this working group. This past July, the Committee met in joint session with this working group in Krakow, Poland to discuss, among other things, Basel II implementation issues. In addition, we encouraged non-G10 supervisory participation on working groups that are addressing issues related to validation and operational risk. I believe that this dialogue will, over time, foster greater consistency among Committee and non-Committee members. The Committee is therefore committed to heightening this dialogue and will consider further ways to promote consistency. I noticed a quote on the cover page of the FBE’s response to the European Commission’s Green Paper on Financial Services Policy: “time passes quickly, we can not save it or buy it, but we can make it work and be fruitful”. In the context of this speech I hope that you feel the past 20 minutes have passed quickly, have worked and been fruitful, and I wish you successful discussions for the rest of the day. Thank you for your attention. BIS Review 84/2005  5
2  BIS Review 20/2004  The stronger productivity growth is probably connected with economic activity; at the beginning of a recovery the available production resources are used to a greater degree and it is only when the recovery is secure that investment and new recruitment accelerate in earnest. However, there are numerous indications that productivity has risen more than is usual for the economic situation, a pattern that has been even more evident in the United States. It is conceivable that this development is linked to the factors I mentioned earlier; globalisation, deregulation and increased competition. However, more lasting changes in productivity may also be linked to the large investments in IT and telecommunications at the end of the 1990s. It is possible that the full impact from the investments made and technological advances is first achieved in connection with cost-cutting and rationalisation. We have a special boxed article on this subject in the report, which I can recommend reading. It is not possible to determine with any certainty what has caused the improvement in productivity. However, given this more favourable picture, we have nevertheless anticipated a rather higher level of productivity growth in the near future. The new inflation figures received also indicate a slightly more subdued inflationary pressure than we had estimated. The outcome shows not only that electricity prices have fallen back as expected, but also that prices have increased at a slower rate in general.