Second, the Finance Minister would be responsible for supervising the implementation of policy objectives and institutional discipline, using adequate instruments to provide symmetric incentives. Negative incentives would of course include the effective implementation of existing sanction mechanisms. They could be broadened in contractual procedures, already put forward in the 2013 Franco-German contribution on EMU, or in Chancellor Merkel’s 9 “binding reform contracts” proposal, and including positive incentives. One of them would be the access to a euro area ”Convergence Fund”, through which Member States could benefit from common funding, once they have established a track record and convincingly avoided moral hazard. In addition conditioning the participation in economic governance on compliant implementation could provide strong incentives. Third, the Finance Minister would be responsible for implementing centralised crisis management. The specific features of the ESM set-up shed light on inherent euro area limitations, as Member States decided solidarity would not be part of the usual governance system. As a result, the ESM is grounded in an intergovernmental treaty. A Finance Minister for the euro area would naturally be in charge of overseeing ESM operations. Crisis management methods themselves could surely better integrate debt sustainability, liquidity support, and financial stability, some weak points recently underlined by the IMF. Last, while moving towards further integration, the Minister could be given the authority for managing a Euro area Convergence Fund, evolving towards a Euro budget. We are touching here on the issue of a common fiscal capacity, promoted recently by Pier Carlo Padoan or Benoît Coeuré.

MAS estimates that there will be more than 9,400 new hiring opportunities for permanent roles in the financial sector in 2022 [4] . More than 3,000 jobs will be in technology. Software developers and engineers continue to have the highest demand, with more than 700 opportunities. They support a wide range of exciting activities, such as designing and developing digital finance services; applying blockchain technology in trade finance; and using artificial intelligence to detect fraud and money laundering. There will also be interesting new roles in sustainable finance. These range from execution of ESG transactions to advisory services and product development. Many of these jobs will draw on traditional finance expertise such as product structuring, risk management, reporting and pricing, but layered and infused with new knowledge on sustainability. The competition for talent is global. The skills in many areas of finance – especially technology and sustainability – are scarce everywhere. This is why supporting our financial institutions to access the talent they need to grow and thrive is a key priority for MAS. To continue growing as a leading international financial centre in Asia, we need a future-ready workforce – comprising a strong Singaporean Core complemented by a pool of deep and diverse global talent. Let me highlight our efforts in the two limbs of our strategy: first, growing a strong local talent pool; and second, attracting high quality global talent.