3/ How can we give further impetus to Europe? Getting back to the European level, I would like to point out that many improvements have also been made in the field of crisis prevention and management. Prevention is based on much more 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  efficient financial regulation and on a European governance framework that is better organised now with well-designed monitoring mechanisms on fiscal performance as well as on macroeconomic imbalances and structural reforms. Banking Union contributes to strengthening financial stability in the euro area and the EU as a whole and to ensuring that the banking sector is safe and reliable. The global European picture is of substantially enhanced resilience since the crisis. The Common Equity Tier 1 ratios of significant banking groups in the euro area have risen from 7% in 2008 to 14% today. Crisis management – including for Greece – has also evolved considerably with the creation of the ESM. So you can be fully confident about the resilience of the euro and of the euro area. It is not only an economic asset, it is also a political one, supported by each of the 19 governments and – which is still more important – by 68% of euro area citizens (and even by 70% of French citizens and 73% of German citizens). Moreover, monetary policy played its full part to maintain euro area cohesion. Europe has clearly succeeded with monetary union, but monetary policy should not remain the only game in town.

While the property and casualty insurers have been the hardest hit, life insurers are not necessarily spared as climate change has also taken its toll on human lives via natural disasters, epidemics and the like. While the global insurance industry has displayed remarkable resilience to withstand such record losses, the future remains fraught with uncertainties and the challenge is to ensure that risk management strategies remain adequate to counter the impact of unpredictable changes in global climate patterns. Allow me now to briefly share with you, some of the measures undertaken by Malaysia in responding to the evolving changes and challenges seen in the insurance marketplace. Firstly, in the area of structural reform, industry consolidation remains an area of priority for Bank Negara Malaysia in its efforts to foster a more competitive and resilient industry to harness economies of scale, expand distribution capacity, enhance business volume and exploit opportunities for cost rationalization. Secondly, the shift towards principle-based regulations and the implementation of a riskbased capital and supervisory framework in Malaysia provides a greater degree of flexibility for insurers to exploit business opportunities arising from the changing financial environment, whilst not losing sight of the inherent risks. Moving forward, Bank Negara Malaysia will adopt an increasingly differentiated regulatory approach where insurers that exhibit strong corporate governance and risk management practices will be given greater regulatory flexibility. Thirdly, the advent of bancassurance and bancatakaful has seen more players packaging life insurance and family takaful with innovative investment options that incorporate banking and investment product features.