In the UK, the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England (FPC) formally recognised this risk to financial stability in June 2013. It recommended that the authorities should assess, test and improve the resilience of core parts of the UK financial sector to cyber attack. The FPC has maintained oversight of this programme of work which has included a number of strands, not least the ‘CBEST’ vulnerability testing of critical financial firms and FMIs. 15  Improving resilience to cyber risk is one part of the Bank’s wider work on broader operational resilience. Operational resilience is not a technical issue, especially for the infrastructure firms that need to act as ‘systemic risk managers’. It must begin in the boardroom. The Bank has worked with supervised firms to improve governance, so that standards can be maintained or strengthened, and threats responded to, without regulatory or supervisory pressure. The Bank of Bangladesh incident also shows why, given the critical nature of the services provided by SWIFT, effective international coordination in its oversight is essential. Oversight of SWIFT is led by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) as SWIFT is a Belgian company. However, the NBB has for many years conducted the oversight of SWIFT in coordination with other central banks, including the Bank of England. These arrangements proved important in maintaining the confidence of regulatory authorities worldwide in the aftermath of the attack. And the oversight arrangements have now been extended in scope to cover the implementation of the crucially important customer security programme.

Second, emphasis is placed on continual skills upgrading. A key initiative is the Financial Industry Competency Standards (FICS). Launched in September, FICS will provide the national framework that benchmarks the competency level of our workforce against top international standards. This is an industry-led initiative. MAS is working on a funding scheme to support financial institutions that participate in this programme. 28. Third, we want to develop Singapore into a centre for financial sector research. Research can be a strategic enabler for financial institutions to develop innovative products, specialist skills and tap new markets. MAS announced a $ million "Programme on Risk Management and Financial Innovation" scheme in June to support research in risk management. Going forward, MAS is seeking consultation to develop a broader industry framework to better steer and facilitate financial sector research. 29. As Singapore's small population is a constraint, we have to continue to attract global talent to complement Singapore's own. However, the competition for global talent is also very keen. We need to identify and reach out to new sources of talent and holistically profile Singapore as a country not just good to work in, but also to live, play and see the region. BIS Review 83/2005  3  Maintaining excellence in a riskier environment 30. We have continued to strengthen our macro-surveillance functions. MAS now publishes a Financial Stability Review report twice a year, in addition to the Macroeconomic Review. 31 Earlier this year, we sought feedback from financial sector stakeholders on MAS's performance in an External Perception Survey (EPS).