Mr. Ed Sibley:

We have had some degree of success because we have, across the bank, increased our head count this year by the net figure of 115. I mean in terms of actual people employed by the Central Bank. At the same time we have experienced a higher degree of turnover than we would like in certain areas. We are managing, I think. We are endeavouring to and succeeding in terms of delivering our responsibilities and mandate. We have to prioritise where we have vacancies. There are risks associated with losing staff. In particular, where we lost experienced staff we have to replace them with less experienced staff or allow time for new staff to come up to speed. At this stage the staff situation is being managed.

There is a lot to be said for working for the Central Bank in terms of the variety, interests and importance of what we do. There are great opportunities for staff to develop, which we strongly advocate. We also try very hard to ensure that the proposition we have for staff is rounded and that we deliver all of those benefits that potential staff could expect. Having said that, we are in a position where the market, particularly for front-line supervision staff and the legal and enforcement perspective, has moved on a great deal from the limits that we operate in within the Central Bank. I would always expect that there will be a bit of gap between what the Central Bank can pay and perhaps what is available in the private sector. That is not inappropriate but the gap is quite sizeable now and does cause us problems both in terms of attracting people and retaining our key skillsets and that we need in order to discharge our function. To date, we have continued to deliver. There are risks associated with high turnover rates and vacancies.