With these questions in mind, allow me to now share two strategies in the context of human capital development that, to my mind, are key catalysts toward a new era of development of the banking sector, as well as the broader financial services industry, with a particular focus on our aspiration with regard to the role of ABS towards the attainment of these strategies. First, is the strategic imperative toward professionalising the banking profession to create a banking workforce committed to highest standards of professional conduct, knowledge and competence. Our motivation in pursuing this imperative is many-pronged – firstly, the move to professionalize the industry, to be achieved via the development of professional qualifications and specialised certification track, that can play a vital role in ensuring that the banking workforce consistently achieves high levels of capability through continuing professional development (CPD) and learning. Secondly, by adhering to professional standards, professional conduct and CPD requirements of professional bodies, a higher level of professionalism and behaviour demonstrated by the banking workforce will generate increased public confidence and trustworthiness in the banking sector. Also vitally important, is the objective of creating structured career pathways for banking professionals through qualification and certification, thereby increasing the professional image, stature and attractiveness of the banking sector as a profession. Consequently we should be able to attract the best minds and talents into our mist. The ABS, together with the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers (AICB), is envisioned to be the catalysts in driving this important agenda of professionalising the industry.

If incumbents depend on Bigtechs for key infrastructure such as cloud computing, if they rely on the same Bigtech to distribute their products through their platforms and then compete with Bigtechs on certain segments, they will see their strategic independence challenged in the same way as hotels and retailers did. This process of commoditisation of incumbents may lower credit standards to compensate for higher pressure on margins and exacerbate their funding gap because of lower customer stickiness. Second, the development of cyber-risk. With greater interconnections between technologies and the financial system and the opening up of information systems, the Banque de France observed in its Financial Stability Report of December 2017 that cyber-risk is moving from an idiosyncratic risk to a potential source of systemic risk which needs to be addressed. This perspective is widely shared among public and private decision makers and it should not come as a surprise that cyber-security will be one of the priorities of the French presidency of the G7 this year. So, to conclude my second point, the completion of the regulatory decade to strengthen banking financial intermediation is not the end of the story; it’s just the end of the beginning of a new era. The transformation of financial intermediation is full of opportunities but it also highlights the limitations of sectoral and entity-based regulations and the need to adapt regulation and supervision to a morphing financial intermediation. This leads me to my last point. 3.