Protection products, such as green housing insurance, also remains an unexplored market in Malaysia despite the steadily increasing number of green buildings in the country. Within existing product offerings, novel features such as additional protection for non-certified green buildings to rebuild in green when damage occurs, could also be explored. Responding to the need for green housing calls on financial institutions to take an approach that is at once novel but not entirely unfamiliar. The journey towards greater incorporation of sustainability considerations is one which many institutions have embarked on, and a focus on green housing is both highly strategic and impactful to the broader agenda of greening the economy. It does, however, bring with it some specific challenges. Housing affordability in Malaysia is already presenting a significant challenge to home ownership with house prices remaining beyond the reach of many Malaysians. This is further compounded by current high levels of household debt. The goal for institutions is to develop green housing solutions that would not substantially worsen these conditions and help steer the market towards a just and orderly transition. Rising to this challenge will require creativity and collaboration between public and private institutions. I am encouraged to see the broad range of participants assembled at this event, including social housing enterprises, government bodies, and non-profit organisations which along with the private sector, have the wherewithal to open up opportunities for the development of new business and funding models for green housing.

We undoubtedly need a  2  BIS Review 84/2005  greater degree of co-ordination between supervisors than hitherto, and we need greater consistency in supervisory practices. As I said, we need a framework that rationalises the compliance burden and streamlines the interaction between supervisory authorities. We need banks that manage risks, not unnecessary supervisory requirements. Thirdly, we need an approach that uses the full range of tools at our disposal. In other words, we should not just look for legislative solutions to the challenges that face us. What we need is effective and timely implementation of the laws and regulations that exist, and convergence in their application. This comes through co-operation and information-sharing between supervisors. And let me also mention here the potential offered by supervisory transparency. We have heard much about market discipline in the context of the disclosure requirements that will apply to banks under pillar 3 of the revised Basel capital framework. But I think that increased disclosure by supervisors, especially on a comparable basis, also has an important role to play, not only in helping us to monitor consistency of approaches across countries, but also in driving greater convergence through exerting a kind of market discipline for supervisors. Finally, allow me to put my Basel hat on for a moment. I think Basel II certainly offers its fair share of implementation challenges, but also provides us with by far the biggest opportunity to make progress in building a more consistent and efficient co-operative approach to supervision.