The principles of widespread support for the objective of policy, the incorporation of the lessons of history, and the need to ensure technical expertise have general applicability. In the case of monetary policy, there is widespread agreement on the objective of low inflation, the design has taken on board the lessons from our post-war experience about the difficulty of targeting monetary aggregates or the exchange rate, and the MPC has been set up to include appropriate expertise. Moreover, the MPC has to set only a single instrument – Bank Rate. It may not be easy to find other areas of policy to which the MPC example can be immediately applied. But it is certainly worth thinking imaginatively about the possibilities for in other areas in which trust in future collective decisions is necessary. Pensions policy, for example, has for years been bedevilled by a combination of extraordinary technical complexity, which means that decisions take a long time to reach, and the reversal of policies adopted by earlier generations. This is very much an area where we have been unable to constrain future collective decisions. And it is one that would benefit from greater stability of policy. At the international level, the importance of constraining future behaviour can be seen in such diverse areas as trade policy and climate change. The difference in the degree of agreement on the objectives of policy can be seen in the difference between the institutions that have been set up to deal with those issues.

We will soon be setting up a dedicated unit on SupTech, to synergise and strengthen these efforts and help sharpen our supervisory practices. Cyber security And last but not least, cyber security. Cyber-attacks are a growing threat to the financial ecosystem, and FinTech could potentially accentuate this risk. As more financial services are delivered over the internet, there will be growing security and privacy concerns from cyber threats. And maybe even systemic concerns. It is not inconceivable that the next financial crisis is triggered by a cyber-attack. We need to develop the regulatory and supervisory capabilities to address these emerging threats. Cyber risk management will be the new frontier for global regulatory efforts and supervisory cooperation. The BIS has set up a taskforce to develop international guidelines on cyber-security responsibilities for banks and fund-transfer providers, with the aim of making global payments safer. More such initiatives are likely in the years ahead. Another area that will be a growing focus is information sharing. Unlike other traditional risks facing financial institutions, cyber risks are less visible and yet often afflict multiple firms at the same time given the interconnectedness of the financial sector. The sharing of timely and actionable cyber information among financial institutions is therefore key to building resilient cyber defences within the financial ecosystem. MAS has collaborated with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (FSISAC) to establish an Asia Pacific (APAC) Regional Intelligence and Analysis Centre. The Centre will encourage regional sharing and analysis of cybersecurity information within the financial services sector.