The new global capital adequacy regime, known as Basel II, represents a major step in the evolution of risk and capital management and in prudential supervision of banking systems. Today’s Basel II Symposium is testament to the importance of this reform, even though its implementation in Australia is still over two years away. I am pleased to be taking part and I congratulate the Economics Society of Australia and their partners at the University of Melbourne and the new Melbourne Centre for Financial Studies for this initiative.