Last year, saw the introduction of three strategic initiatives that aspire to drive and support the transformation of our talent development infrastructure in an impactful manner. The criticality of these initiatives is obvious given that the financial services industry employs close to 150,000 people and requires approximately 73,000 new hires over the next 10 years. Let me elaborate a bit on these initiatives. First, is the establishment of the Financial Services Talent Council. In July 2014, Bank Negara Malaysia established the Council with the aim of setting the strategic direction of the financial sector talent development. This initiative is one of the proposals envisaged under the Financial Sector Blueprint 2011–2020 which brings together individuals with expertise and experience across the financial services industry and academia. The Council is tasked with the responsibility to work closely with the industry, training providers and relevant stakeholders, to formulate strategies to further develop, attract, retain and deploy domestic and international talents to meet the demand of the financial services industry. Second, is our commitment to bring the industry to greater heights of professionalism and ethics. And with the support of the Securities Commission and industry, the Financial Services Professional Board was established. This industry-led entity, comprising prominent individuals with diverse global experience is responsible to spearhead strategic undertakings to develop professional standards and ethical behaviour within the financial services industry. In this respect, the Board aspires to set new benchmarks in professionalism and ethical behaviour via advocacy.

To work well, our Union needs both: risk reduction mechanisms and risk sharing. As I just said, for crisis prevention to be credible, we should implement fiscal discipline – including the present rules of the Stability and Growth Pact – but we should also have the instruments needed to cushion the effects of asymmetric shocks that may arise suddenly, regardless of all the efforts a Member State can make. It is time to forget about ideological trench warfare. Let me share with you four areas where practical progress is needed: First, bolstering private risk sharing. The simple and obvious way to achieve this is to build the Capital Markets Union within the Financing Union that I mentioned earlier. We are still lagging far behind the United States where capital markets are capable of absorbing around 40% of a state-specific shock. What is more, a genuine Financing Union would further 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  increase the efficiency of monetary policy by ensuring better circulation of liquidity in the euro area. Second, EDIS. We have made significant strides with the first two pillars of the Banking Union, the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM). We still need – and it should be our priority – to strengthen the SRM with a sovereign backstop to the Single Resolution Fund and a simplified decision-making process tailored for emergency cases of resolution. Now, there needs to be some form of compromise to move forward on the third pillar, EDIS, as well.