Transparency is traditionally not a focus of supervisors, so it needs to be explicitly enacted, independently of how supervision is organised. The fourth condition is the efficiency and efficacy of supervision. Does the authority perform its services at a reasonable cost? To a large extent this depends on the organisation of the work itself and not the overall supervisory structure. There is also an argument of economies of scale and scope, implying that some costs could be reduced if you combine the supervisory authorities. 2  BIS Review 49/2007  A more important aspect of efficacy is whether the authority lives up to its stated objectives, for instance to ensure a safe and sound financial system. This has not so much to do with the organisation of the authority but more with its legal powers and independence. An even broader issue concerns the appropriate range of objectives for a supervisory authority, for instance if consumer protection, competition policy or promotion of the financial sector should be included together with the basic objective of financial stability and smooth operations in the financial sector and its institutions. My experience from many countries is that it is usually more efficient to separate these objectives between different authorities. For instance, handling consumer issues is resource intensive and may negatively affect confidence in the supervisory authority. Having too many objectives might also lead to conflicting goals for the authority.
If we plant the financial literacy seed now, we will watch as our children and students grow and bloom into responsible economic citizens. As parents, teachers and educators, we can do this by sharing and talking directly with our children about money matters, teaching them of the things to improve their money management skills, and be role models for them. To the winners of the 2014 Be Money $ poster competition, I offer my heartfelt congratulations! You have done a magnificent job with these posters – your entries were chosen out of 550 entries submitted to us! I only pray that you will exercise some financial literacy with your cash prizes received today!! I would also like to acknowledge the principals and teachers for encouraging your students to participate in the competition and for incorporating financial literacy in your lessons. With the BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  rewards that your individual schools will receive today I hope you are now ever more convinced that financial literacy is worth it and that it $ off! At this point I would like to acknowledge Meilan Meredith and her team at Business System Limited for the wonderful partnership in the poster competition and kindly donating prizes and trophies for our winners today. Your partnership is greatly appreciated and we look forward to another opportunity to work with you in the future. And lastly, a big faamalo to the Financial System Development team for coordinating this year’s poster competition. I wish you all, a very blessed weekend.