Internationally, it is currently accepted that governments have very important tasks to perform in the financial field. These may include designing restructuring strategies, determining resolution instruments, deciding on the use of public funds, etc. But there is also broad consensus that such tasks should be implemented by independent regulators and supervisors. By assigning the regulatory and supervisory remit to independent institutions that act using sound technical criteria, the danger of decisions being subject to the vagaries of politics or to lobby group interests is removed to some extent. Reasons of technical capability also come into play. Independent and professional supervisors have the time and resources to build up enormously rich knowledge which, given the particular characteristics of financial activity, is essential for tackling problems in this sector, minimising errors and unwanted side-effects at the same time. Having independent regulatory and supervisory institutions by no means guarantees that mistakes are not made. But their presence ensures that decisions are not tainted by momentary political considerations. I cannot say that the Banco de España, in its supervisory mission, has not occasionally been mistaken. But I can assure you that the decisions of the Banco de España have always been based on exclusively professional criteria. This is an important facet of independence. Independence is not something innate. It is not a label or badge conferred by anyone. Independence is demonstrated, and it is exercised or not exercised. Nobody is independent for what they are, but rather for what they do.
Philipp Hildebrand: Lessons from the crisis for global financial market infrastructure Summary of a speech by Mr Philipp Hildebrand, Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Zermatt Symposium, Avenir suisse, Zermatt, 25 August 2009. The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  The financial market infrastructure, in other words, the systems for trading, clearing and settling payments and financial instruments, is essential for the operation of the financial system. Thus far in the financial crisis, financial market infrastructure has stood up well overall and helped to prevent the existing uncertainty in the financial system from becoming even greater. This holds true both for payment and settlement systems in Switzerland and for the global financial market infrastructure. However, time and again, it becomes apparent that the infrastructure for clearing and settling transactions is not keeping up with rapidly growing financial markets. In recent years, this has been most obvious in the OTC derivatives market. Pressured by supervisory authorities and central banks, market participants are now developing safer and more efficient clearing and settlement arrangements for OTC derivatives. These efforts include the establishment of central counterparties, which facilitate market participants’ risk management, promote market transparency and reduce the complexity of the financial system. To the extent that the market infrastructure reduces the interconnections between individual financial institutions, it contributes to the long-term strategy aimed at finding ways of liquidating large and complex financial institutions in an orderly way.