Lars Rohde: Trust and transparency in the financial system

Speech by Mr Lars Rohde, Governor of the National Bank of Denmark, at the annual meeting of Danish Auditors, Copenhagen, 10 September 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Thank you for inviting me to speak here today.

My topic is trust and transparency in the financial system.

This topic is always current, but it became particularly relevant in connec-tion with the financial crisis. It was a substantial breach of trust when cen-tral governments in large parts of the western world had to use taxpayer funds to save the financial sector.

In recent years, the topic has surfaced again following a number of unfor-tunate issues that have accumulated since the financial crisis. For a long time we may have thought that this was primarily a problem that existed outside Denmark's borders. But then cases emerged in Denmark too. There have been money laundering cases, there have been deliveries of very large banknotes to bureaux de change, and incorrect advice has been provided in connection with investment products. The financial sec-tor has been involved in transactions that have drained the government coffers of many billions of kroner in dividend tax. And I am sure we could find more examples.