Distinguished Guests, It is my honour to be invited to address this distinguished audience at this ‘Asian Islamic Banking & Finance Summit - Developing a Comprehensive Islamic Financial System’, organised by the Euromoney Seminars for the Asian region. While the overall development of Islamic banking and finance for more than three decades has been evolutionary, the pace has intensified in recent years. Islamic financial concepts have been incorporated into many financial products to meet the changing needs of consumers, businesses and investors. New Islamic financial institutions are being established ranging from the traditional banking institutions to more specialised financial institutions. This Islamic financial landscape has been supported by a well-developed regulatory, prudential, legal, accounting, framework and reinforced by the necessary research and development. Initiatives to promote greater awareness and education amongst Muslims and non-Muslims have also been intensified. In this recent decade, we have seen the financial globalisation of Islamic finance with the participation of both the authorities and the private sector. In the case of the former, attention has been given to developing the financial infrastructure, including the financial markets, institutions and agencies as well as establishing the necessary prudential and accounting standards. While the latter has included the borrowers, investors and institutions that participate in the process. Sovereigns, corporations and multinational and multilateral entities have accessed the international markets while the institutions and investors have been a source of financing. Indeed, these funds are either raised directly from international banking institutions or through bonds and equity issues in international markets.

Niklaus Blattner: The demographic challenge – macroeconomic perspectives Summary of a speech by Mr Niklaus Blattner, Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Conference "Die alternde Gesellschaft als sozio-ökonomische Herausforderung" (the aging society: a socio-economic challenge), University of Basel, Basel, 9 February 2007. The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  Demographic aging, i.e. the growing average age of the population, or the reversal of the age pyramid, is also a matter of concern for a central bank. Without a careful analysis of the long-term developments in the real economy, any monetary policy assessment, and consequently any inflation forecast, will be inadequate. In addition to the activities in the money and capital markets, the longterm growth outlook – and thus also the population perspectives – are factored into the Swiss National Bank's monetary policy assessment. The aging of the population is a fact. It is linked to three main trends, which will greatly influence Switzerland's demographic landscape in the decades to come: first, the economically active population will decrease, second, the old-age ratio, i.e. the ratio of people over 65 to those between 20 and 64 is on the rise, and third, longevity is increasing. In future, Switzerland will have to produce more with fewer resources. "Fewer resources" because the economically active population is declining, "produce more" because the old-age ratio is worsening and longevity increasing.