This means that he is also included in the Steering Committee that prepares the General Board’s meetings and monitors the ESRB’s current work, and in the Advisory Scientific Committee, which is the other advisory body. BIS central bankers’ speeches  7  continued financial stability work is formed by stress tests of the banks. During the financial crisis, both the US and European authorities implemented and reported such stress tests. Their aims were to increase transparency concerning the banks’ risks, to increase confidence in the sector, and to push the banks into increasing their capital bases. The next European stress test will be reported this June. The Swedish regulations for the financial sector need to be strengthened The Swedish regulations for the financial sector also need to be strengthened. Consequently, the Executive Board and General Council of the Riksbank have, in a communication to the Riksdag, urged the Riksdag to assign the government to carry out a thorough review of the regulations.7 The starting point for this is that we need a cohesive and effective regulatory framework that allows us to better prevent and manage crises in the future. Firstly, the mandates and roles of the authorities involved are unclear. As the regulations are currently written, responsibility for financial stability is shared by the government, Finansinspektionen, the Riksbank and the Swedish National Debt Office. But it is not specified sufficiently clearly who is to do what or how the exchange of information and knowledge is to take place.
However, two members of the Executive Board remained responsible for tabling proposals for decision in issues of monetary policy and financial stability. This was also changed later, so that these two were no longer responsible for tabling proposals for decision, but only acted as spokespersons. When Irma Rosenberg left, the role of spokesperson for monetary policy disappeared, and when Lars Nyberg leaves at the end of this year, the role of spokesperson for financial stability will also probably disappear. The Executive Board has also decided to assign the Governor to assume managerial responsibility for the Heads of Department and to monitor the Riksbank’s activities within the scope of the fixed budget and operational plan. However, this will not solve the problem of the Governor not being head of the Riksbank in the same way as a Director General is head of an authority. The Riksdag Committee on Finance has stated its intention to review the Sveriges Riksbank Act once other issues it has been assigned by the government to investigate have been cleared up. My suggestion is that the role of the Governor of the Riksbank also be reviewed and strengthened at the same time. There are many ways in which this could be done, and different countries have taken different approaches. One possibility that I think might work well would be to have a Governor who is head of the authority and two Deputy Governors who, under the Governor, each take responsibility for their part of operations.