By contrast, in firms with low levels of cultural capital, formal policies and procedures do not reflect “the way things are really done.” Misconduct results from the norms and pressures that drive individuals to make decisions that are not aligned with the values, business strategies, and risk appetite set by the board and senior leaders. Employees do not speak freely when they have concerns, and directors and senior managers do not find out about improper conduct until it is uncovered by the authorities. Rules may be followed to the letter, but not in spirit. All of this increases misconduct risk and potentially damages the firm and the industry over time. To be clear, I am not saying this is easy. Culture is difficult to assess because it is not a single, point-in-time metric, but a multi-dimensional concept with different implications for different parts of an organization. This complexity suggests that no single metric, solution, approach, or template will work for every firm in every circumstance.5 Consider the different roles of key players in mitigating misconduct risk and building and sustaining a healthy culture. The board of directors, senior management, staff, investors, industry groups, and the official sector might all see and assess aspects of a firm’s culture differently. Today, I will focus on a few of these stakeholders. Boards of Directors In 2017, the New York Fed hosted a culture measurement workshop that included a panel of board members from various financial firms.
Since the beginning of the crisis, its communication includes more the so-called “Forward guidance", i.e. pointing to the future monetary policy setup. Mario Draghi’s statement from 2012, when the future of the euro was in jeopardy, is well known, a statement that has stabilized financial markets and confidence – “Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough”. Moreover, the scope and the volume of our functions significantly enlarged. Macro-prudential function, banking solution, consumer protection in the financial services sector – all of these are new dimensions for us, which also mean change in the context and improvement of the way we communicate. The changes in the last decade have been particularly pronounced in terms of 1/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  information and statistics requests from central banks. As the uncertainty grows, so does the “impatience” for faster access to data and information on the economy and financial sector condition. At today’s workshop, the accent was put particularly on this part of our communication – statistics, which is pivotal for our decision-making, and equally important when properly communicating and explaining them to the public. For the first time, we decided that this event should be fully devoted to this topic, taking into consideration your interests expressed in the survey conducted last year, as well as the interests you most often addressed this year.