The Reserve Bank board will meet eight times a year instead of 11 from next year, as it implements changes recommended by the RBA Review. Detailing the changes in a speech yesterday, RBA governor Philip Lowe, said four of the meetings would be on the first Tuesday of February, May, August and November, with the other four midway between those meetings. Board meetings will be longer, running over two days, and board members will have the opportunity to attend an internal staff meeting before the board meeting. The statement announcing the decision of the meeting will be issued by the board, not the governor, as is the current practice. The governor will hold a media briefing after each meeting. The Quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy will be released at the same time as the outcomes of the February, May, August and November meetings. The board will oversee the bank’s research agenda as it relates to monetary policy and aspects of financial stability. Lowe said the less frequent and longer meetings would provide more time for the board to examine issues in detail and have deeper discussions on monetary policy strategy. He said implementation of several recommendations would be delayed until “after the legislative process” and the new monetary policy board was operating. These include publication of an unattributed vote count, regular public appearance by board members, the establishment of an expert advisory group and publication of board papers with a five-year lag. “This [the delay] will avoid the current board locking the new board into a particular approach,” Lowe said. In further changes, the members of the Council of Financial Regulators – the RBA, APRA and ASIC – will update their memorandum of understanding to set clear and specific commitments regarding co-operation. The RBA has reviewed its code of conduct and will strengthen standards dealing with conflicts of interests by making it clear that board members and entities they control are prohibited from transacting in interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives and from active trading in financial instruments. The RBA will have a chief operating officer and more management vacancies will be advertised externally. Risk management and operational resilience will be strengthened, with a particular focus on the payments infrastructure it operates. The bank will establish a separate communications department, which will, among other things, advise the governor and the board on strategic communications.