Indeed, there was also some apprehension amongst the regulatory authorities, consumers, business communities and investors on the future potential of Islamic finance. Notwithstanding this, over the recent five years, there has been a rapid evolution and expansion of the industry. Today, Islamic finance has been recognised as a viable and competitive form of financial intermediation not only in Muslim countries but also outside the Muslim world and offering a wide range of financial products and services. Licences are being issued to facilitate the establishment of Islamic banks including in the industrial economies in Western jurisdictions. There are also an increasing number of international conventional banking institutions offering Islamic financial products and services through dedicated subsidiaries or branches as well as through window arrangements. In addition, countries that have pockets of Muslim population, in particular, in the Asian region are now exploring the prospect of providing access to Islamic financial services to promote greater inclusion. These trends have not only been in terms of numbers of Islamic financial institutions, but also in terms of institutions with larger size of capital and a more established operational governance framework including risk management. Islamic financial institutions that previously operated only in their own domestic jurisdictions have also begun to venture abroad to tap new growth opportunities in other regions and forge greater cross-border linkages. In the Islamic capital markets, there has been a growing interest in the issuance of Islamic sukuks by both sovereigns and multinational corporations.

These efforts have helped to avoid retrenchment of staff who might otherwise be displaced, and contributed to the steady decline in retrenchments in the financial sector, from the peak of 2,300 in 2016 to 1,300 in 2019.7 However, given the accelerated pace of digitalisation, we need to do more, and at scale. We are now experimenting an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform with 13 FI partners to automate the process of identifying adjacencies in jobs and skills, so that more workers can benefit from reskilling and pivot into suitable roles. We hope to share more about the platform early next year. Creating Opportunities Our second priority is to expand opportunities for those aspiring to enter or reenter the financial sector workforce. 9. The National Jobs Council has been set up to mobilise tripartite partners’ resources to create opportunities amidst the weak labour hiring conditions. I am pleased to note that the financial sector is one of the top contributing sectors to 2/6  BIS central bankers' speeches  the jobs and traineeships programmes, offering a wide range of opportunities, including in technology and innovation, retail and corporate banking. Close to 60 FIs have offered about 1,300 SGUnited Traineeship positions for fresh and recent graduates in this challenging job market. As of end July 2020, 50 FIs have committed to hiring 900 Singaporeans over the next 3 years to be groomed for future leadership and specialist roles under structured talent development programmes supported by MAS.