In a few moments the HKMA will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding with each of them to formalize the framework of cooperation. 4. Now I would like to report on the latest progress of four major fintech projects launched by the FFO earlier. First, following my announcement of the launch of the Cybersecurity Fortification Initiative (CFI) in May, the FFO has been making very good progress in developing the three pillars of the CFI. A three month industry consultation of the first pillar of CFI, the Cybersecurity Resilience Assessment Programme, was completed in August, with positive responses from the banking sector. Taking into account the comments received, the FFO is finalising the Assessment Programme and will announce the detailed framework next month for implementation by banks in Hong Kong. Regarding the second pillar of the CFI, the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing Platform, again good progress is being made. The computer platform will be in operation and available to the banking sector next month as planned. The last pillar of the CFI is the Professional Development Programme, a training and certification programme for the cybersecurity professionals. A six-week consultation with the cybersecurity professionals and industry associations was conducted in the summer. The industry in general welcomes the programme and has suggested the need to recognise certain equivalent qualifications in the market for conducting the cybersecurity assessment and testing. We agree with this suggestion, and have already formed an industry expert panel with the task of identifying equivalent qualifications and working out the implementation details.

Member countries would be a “Schicksalsgemeinschaft” and would need strong common democratic underpinnings. But a deliberate choice was made in the 1990s not to give the euro such features. The euro was launched as a “currency without a state” to preserve the sovereignty and diversity of member countries. This informed the so-called “Maastricht setup”, which laid the euro’s institutional foundations. But as recent events have shown, this institutional framework left the euro area insufficiently equipped to ensure sound economic policies and effectively manage crises. For this reason, the way ahead cannot be a return to the status quo ante. The challenges of having a single monetary policy but loosely coordinated fiscal, economic and financial policies have been clearly revealed by the crisis. As Jean Monnet said, coordination “is a method which promotes discussion, but it does not lead to a decision.” And strong decisions have to be made to manage the world’s second most important currency. A new architecture for the euro area is desirable to create sustained prosperity for all euro area countries, and especially for Germany. The root of Germany’s success is its deep integration into the European and world economies. To continue to prosper, Germany needs to remain an anchor of a strong currency, at the centre of a zone of monetary stability and in a dynamic and competitive euro area economy. Only a stronger economic and monetary union can provide this. Yet this new architecture does not require a political union first.