Davies, R, Haldane, A, Nielsen, M, and Pezzini, S (2014), “Measuring the costs of shorttermism”, Journal of Financial Stability Vol 12 Pages 16–25. DeLong, B (1998), “Estimates of World GDP, One Million BC to Present”, available at: http://delong.typepad.com/print/20061012_LRWGDP.pdf. Eichengreen, B (2014), “Secular stagnation: A review of the issues”, in VoxEU (2014). Eisner, M (2003), “Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent Crime”, Crime and Justice Vol 30 Pages 83–142. Fernald, J and Jones, C (2014), “The future of US economic growth”, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper Series, available at: http://www.frbsf.org/economicresearch/files/wp2014–02.pdf. Frey, C and Osbourne, M (2013), “The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?”, Oxford Martin, available at: http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf. Gordon, R (2012), “Is US Economic Growth Over? Faltering innovation confronts the six headwinds”, NBER Working Paper 18315, available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w18315.pdf. Gordon, R (2014), “The turtle’s progress: secular stagnation meets the headwinds”, in VoxEU (2014). Haldane, A (2014), “Twin Peaks”, Speech given at the Kenilworth Chamber of Trade Business Breakfast, available at: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2014/speech764.pdf. Hansen, A (1939), “Progress and Declining Population Growth”, The American Economic Review Vol XXIX No 1. Hansson, I and Stuart, C (1990), “Malthusian Selection of Preferences”, The American Economic Review Vol 80 No 3. Heim, C and Mirowski, P (1987), “Interest rates and crowding-out during Britain’s industrial revolution”, Journal of Economic History Vol 47 Pages 117–139. Hills, S, Thomas, R and Dimsdale, N (2010), “The UK recession in context – what do three centuries of data tell us?”, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin 2010 Q4.

For example, we see increased capacity in writing specialised risks like aviation, energy, marine and political risks. For the life insurance industry, we have also seen greater product innovation as well as increased interest from insurers offering more sophisticated products catering to the needs of the high net-worth and mass affluent segments. BIS Review 163/2010  1  Future challenges and opportunities 7. But greater challenges and opportunities lie ahead. Enhancing risk management capabilities 8. The recent global financial crisis has underscored the importance for financial institutions to have strong risk management capabilities. The use of risk management tools such as stress testing, for example, helps identify potential risks, and allows countermeasures to be instituted early. Insurers in Singapore would have to keep abreast of developments internationally, and should continually look for ways to deepen their risk management tools and capabilities. INCOME is no exception. But unlike some of the other insurers that are part of larger global financial institutions and can therefore leverage on their parents’ risk management expertise, INCOME does not have such an advantage. These global financial institutions have widely-tested risk management practices and more established risk management cultures, given their richer experience. INCOME would have to grow its risk management expertise internally, but it would do well to learn from these global players’ recent experiences. Strengthening governance 9. However, having risk management tools and capabilities alone will not be enough. The challenge is often in successfully integrating enterprise risk management into the insurer’s business, and this would require effective governance.