We are currently discussing the results from these questionnaires directly with firms. You will appreciate that I cannot go into specifics. But overall the responses did not reveal any immediate critical shortcomings in the cyber resilience of the firms involved. But they did point to areas for improvement that we will be following up on with firms. Let me list some common themes. 1. Cyber has changed the rules: existing operational resilience arrangements are often geared to dealing with physical threats. These still matter. But cyber changes the game. Cyber is a dynamic, intelligent and adaptive threat. In the cyber arms race, costs are stacked in favour of the attacker, not the defender. To meet the challenge, organisations need to have policies and processes that are dynamic, intelligent and adaptive too. This means investment in capability to identify threats and detect cyber attacks. Without this situational awareness it is hard to determine and achieve appropriate maturity levels for cyber defence and to allocate resources effectively to meet the threat. 2. Cyber is not a minority sport for technologists only: Of course the first line of defence is critical and we still need IT specialists who understand the technical challenges cyber presents. But good cyber resilience is about much more than technology. It is about culture too and this means people and processes. When Morgan Stanley reported recently its customer information had been breached, this wasn’t due to sophisticated hackers, rather an employee who stole data from over 350,000 customer accounts.

Against this backdrop, the Bank of Thailand has the duty not only to preserve and maintain economic and financial stability, but also to develop our financial system so that it can effectively unlock Thailand’s economic potential, uplift productivity, and bring about more inclusive growth for the future. Ladies and gentlemen, For the Bank of Thailand, maintaining economic and financial stability is a prerequisite for sustainable growth. Thus far, the Thai macroeconomic outlook remains favorable, with the economy expected to grow 4.4 percent this year, the highest since 2012. Additionally, 1/6  the Thai economy has adequate buffers to withstand any immediate challenges, with ample international reserves, covering 3.5 times our short-term external debts; low dependency on external borrowing; and current account surplus of around 8 – 9 percent of GDP1. Moreover, our banking sector is robust, with high capital adequacy ratio and stable domestic funding. In the first quarter of 2018, the capital adequacy ratio of the banking system averaged 18 percent, among the highest in the region. To further safeguard financial stability, additional micro and macro-prudential measures were introduced, such as the regulations on domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs), along with more stringent regulations on credit cards and personal loans to tackle household debt challenges. Moreover, the Bank of Thailand recently revised regulations to enhance financial institutions’ corporate governance, with emphasis starting at the Board of Director’s level. Meanwhile, in collaboration with the Thai Bankers’ Association, we established a “debt clinic” to offer multi-creditor debt restructuring program for troubled individuals.