It is a truly great pleasure to welcome you to the Bank of Korea International Conference 2012, on ‘Monetary and Macroprudential Policies in the Aftermath of the Crisis’.

The global financial crisis has stimulated new thinking on financial stability and central banking. There has been growing consensus among policymakers and researchers on the need to go beyond a purely micro-based approach to financial regulation and supervision, by introducing well-designed macroprudential measures in greater consideration of systemic risk and from a multilateral perspective. In the monetary policy arena, we have also realized that the pursuit of price stability alone does not automatically lead to financial stability.

Over the past three years or so, the international community has discussed possible ways of improving financial system stability and resilience, and we have achieved notable progress on multiple fronts. Academics have also contributed much to our understanding of the interactions between the real economy, the financial sector, and monetary policy effectiveness.

These topics nevertheless all merit further in-depth discussion, with a view both to establishing the appropriate theoretical framework and to translating the outputs of academic research into implementable policies. The issue of financial stability enhancement must be considered from a multilateral standpoint, in line with the growing interconnectedness among countries. Coordination of monetary and macroprudential policies is another important issue. In Korea, in order to bolster the macroprudential foundation of the domestic financial system the Bank of Korea is now mandated, under the newly revised Bank of Korea Act since September 2011, with the responsibility not only for maintaining price stability but for paying due attention to financial stability as well.

I believe now to be an excellent time for reviewing the progress made in our endeavors so far, and I look forward to this year's conference serving as an ideal forum for addressing a range of highly relevant topics in connection with these critical issues. In particular, we are organizing the conference jointly with the IMF this year, and have added a policy discussion session, which I believe will provide us with a better opportunity to discuss practical policy issues and to share vivid views with policymakers as well as participants from international institutions and academia.

I heartily welcome you all, and I hope very much that you enjoy your stays in Seoul.

• 
• Choongsoo Kim
• Governor
• The Bank of Korea