2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  A special emphasis should be made on monetary policy challenges facing the central banks throughout the world. Easy monetary policies helped stabilise the situation in advanced countries, but the quantitative easing programmes were introduced as short-term interim measures allowing to gain time for structural reforms. As you know, however, nothing is more permanent than the temporary and structural reforms show little progress, while the easy monetary policy now involves more risks than benefits due to its longevity. Monetary policy in itself is not able to set the economies of advanced countries back to resilient growth, since there are structural limits and there is no room for reducing interest rates any further, i.e., they have already been negative in many countries. Nonetheless, low interest rates in advanced countries were conducive to fast accumulation of external debt in the emerging market economies subjected to capital inflow and bubble formation. On the one hand, we realise that an exit from the easy monetary policy is fraught with an about-turn in capital flows and consequently the need to tighten monetary policies in emerging market economies. This may bring down the global economy’s growth rates even further. Moreover, as a result of a quick monetary policy normalisation holders of these countries’ bonds may incur losses and financial stability risks cannot be ruled out. On the other hand, a refusal to normalise monetary policy may lead to stagflation.

In terms of talent demand for the overall financial sector, it is anticipated that over the next 10 years, a workforce of about 200,000 employees would be required, which is an increase of 56,000 people from the current 144,000 employees. There will therefore be strong demand across the financial sector, particularly for specialised skills in high growth and niche areas such as wealth management, Shariah advisory, corporate finance and investment advisory services. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Human capital development as key growth area In Malaysia, several dedicated institutions for human capital development in Islamic finance have been established. Contributions by tertiary education institutions, training and research institutions, and private training providers have been important to the development of professionals and expertise in Islamic finance. There are now more than 5,800 students enrolled in Islamic finance related academic courses in Malaysian higher learning institutions. The International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF), established in 2006 to develop qualified professionals in Islamic finance, has now produced 265 Chartered Islamic Finance Professional holders; while approximately 2,000 students from more than 75 countries are currently enrolled at different stages of completion of the Islamic finance programs. In terms of industry training, IBFIM has to date trained 32 percent of the total Islamic finance industry workforce. Critical components in talent development strategies The vision moving forward for human capital development in Islamic finance is to ensure a steady stream of competent and versatile talent to support greater innovation and dynamism of the Islamic finance industry.