This means: understanding at a granular level the data that are held, processed or shared; assessing the criticality and sensitivity of all data sets; putting in place targeted measures to safeguard data; and taking swift recovery measures in the event of a data breach. Besides their personal health data, people regard their personal financial data as most sensitive. Financial institutions have a particular responsibility to safeguard this data. The third area to watch closely is risk from the misuse of data analytics and artificial intelligence. Data analytics and artificial intelligence can help to uncover patterns which we are unaware of and to provide insights that we could not have gained from traditional analytical tools. But unless there is public trust that data analytics and artificial intelligence will be used responsibly, financial institutions will not get the social license they need to apply these technologies widely. To gain this trust, we must address four areas in data analytics and artificial intelligence: Privacy of data. How do we safeguard the confidentiality of personal data? Explainability of results. How do we minimise the “black box” syndrome? Accountability for decisions. How can we hold humans ultimately responsible for decisions made by self-learning machines? Acceptability of outcomes. How do we minimise unconscious bias, social exclusion, and ethically unacceptable consequences? MAS has co-created with the financial industry in Singapore a set of preliminary principles to 9 / 10  BIS central bankers' speeches  guide the responsible use of data analytics and artificial intelligence in financial services.

Ravi Menon: Protecting Asia from natural catastrophes Opening address by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Institute of Catastrophe Risk Management Symposium, Singapore, 3 August 2017. * * * Professor Bertil Andersson, President of Nanyang Technological University, Professor Pan Tso-Chien, Executive Director, Institute of Catastrophe Risk Management, Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I am happy to join you at the 8th ICRM Symposium. A widening protection gap Asia has a serious problem. The frequency and severity of natural catastrophes hitting the region is increasing. According to UN data, the number of natural disasters in the Asia Pacific has increased from an annual average of 44 disasters in the 1970s to 146 in the 2000s. We don’t need much reminder of the tragic natural disasters that the people in Asia have suffered in recent years. the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004; the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011; the Thailand Floods also in 2011; and Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. As Asia continues to grow rapidly, more lives, wealth and assets in Asia are correspondingly at risk from natural catastrophes. Growing urbanisation also means that wealth in Asia is increasingly concentrated in small, overpopulated megacities. There are 22 mega cities in Asia, each with more than 10 million inhabitants and hosting important commercial, manufacturing, and logistics hubs. Many of these cities are located in the Philippines, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, which are highly exposed to natural perils.