It has made the right diagnosis and, in the Basel III framework, drawn the appropriate lessons. My friend Nout Wellink is chairing the Basel Committee; I myself have the privilege of chairing the Committee of Governors and Heads of Supervision, which provides guidance to the Basel Committee. The second building block is regulation of the financial markets. Here, reform must ensure much greater transparency for the various market segments and products, ensure sufficient competition in all markets, and attenuate as much as possible the pro-cyclicality that derives from information asymmetries, structural features such as ratings and market phenomena such as herding. The third building block is macroprudential oversight. This new discipline focuses on the interactions between the various parts of the financial system and between the financial sector and the real economy. New institutions, including the ESRB and equivalent oversight committees around the world, will pursue the task of identifying sources of systemic risk, issuing early warnings and recommending remedial action. The birth date of macroprudential oversight in Europe will probably be identified as the start of this year but it was originally conceived in 2009 through the work of Jacques de Larosière and his high-level group, which included my friend Otmar Issing. Eighteen months from policy design to institutional establishment is a remarkable achievement. It was made possible by thorough groundwork as well as excellent transposition by the Commission and very rapid decisions by the European Parliament and the European Council. I feel very honoured to chair this new body, the ESRB.

The MyInfo platform allows banks to more effectively and efficiently obtain authenticated and updated information for account opening and other applications, doing away with the tedium of manual physical authentication and resulting in time saving of as much as 80% for banks and their customers. 25. Second, we are reviewing our regulatory framework to balance the tension between encouraging innovation and managing risk. The Payments Services Act is a forward looking and flexible framework for the regulation of payment systems and payment service providers in Singapore. It gives regulatory certainty to new players to pursue innovation and growth, while at the same time providing sufficient safeguards for consumers. 26. Third, we are creating more channels to promote the exchange of ideas and collaboration among financial and technology firms. Since 2016, MAS has partnered industry players to bring together financial and technology players from all over the world in the week-long Singapore FinTech Festivals. Turnout has more than quadrupled over the past three years with 45,000 participants from 130 countries in 2018. It is early days yet, but the results of our efforts are encouraging. Singapore is widely regarded as one of the leading FinTech hubs in the world. A report by Ernst & Young finds that nearly 7 out of 10 Singaporeans have made use of FinTech solutions in 2019, making us a leader in the Asia-Pacific region. 27. Another important development has been among our local banks themselves. They have been expanding their digital platforms to better cater to customers’ needs, and grow markets abroad.