other immediate needs that have not been addressed. for the banking industry, examples of such needs are : • lower bank counters for wheelchair - bound customers • “ talking atms ” for the visually impaired • availability of sign language interpreters for the deaf • the need for oku - friendly bank website to enhance their accessibility to e - banking services, which would augur well with the initiative by bank negara malaysia to promote the usage of e - banking. banks are encouraged to provide websites which are w3c compliance. the world wide web consortium ( w3c ) is an international body that provides standards to enhance the web accessibility, enabling people with disabilities to participate equally on the web, such as providing alternative text for images to allow accessibility by the visually impaired, providing text transcript to allow audio information accessible to the hearing impaired, and many other services. for the insurance industry, more needs to be done to provide products that cater for the okus ’ needs and to address the issue of high loading of insurance premium imposed by the insurers. another area for consideration – employment opportunities for okus on another aspect, the government has issued a service circular to implement a 1 % policy on employment opportunities for okus in the public sector as well as provided incentive by giving double tax relief for employers of oku. it is encouraging to note that several financial institutions have provided opportunities for the okus to be employed in the financial industry and recognized that they have the necessary capabilities to contribute to the financial industry. nevertheless, more needs to be done and i hope financial institutions will provide the opportunity for more okus to be employed in the financial industry. global trend - benchmarking with financial sector in other countries showed that they are more advanced on the global front, looking at the trends and initiatives by other countries, especially the developed countries, we observe that the industry associations are very proactive and undertake a leading role in ensuring the okus ’ rights are met. for example, the australian bankers ’ association issued guiding principles for accessible authentication to provide guidance to financial institutions to adopt stronger authentication technologies to facilitate the access of people with disabilities. strong human rights legislation that changed the banking system i would also like to share a landmark case in canada in 1991 where two blind customers were frustrated with their bank when they could not access information about their mortgage bis central bankers ’ speeches and the bank ’ s other services. since they were both blind, they could not read banking information that was only available in printed brochures

law, and making ambitious progress on the capital markets union. in particular, the agreement on establishing a backstop to the single resolution fund, which demonstrates the euro area ’ s commitment to completing the banking union, now needs to be operationalised to ensure that it works swiftly and effectively. we should also rekindle trust in our economic and fiscal framework by making it more effective in ensuring sound policymaking at national level. these actions are also further supported at the european level by the recent decision to launch a euro area budgetary instrument for convergence and competitiveness. a more complete emu will be a better foundation for a stable and resilient euro area economy that contributes to global 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches economic growth and financial stability. we take note of the fact that the european council has agreed on an extension of the united kingdom ’ s membership of the eu until 31 october 2019, provided the uk participates in the forthcoming european parliament elections in accordance with union law. while this means that the risk of a cliff edge has likely been avoided in the short term, the financial sector should continue to prepare for all possible contingencies, including a disorderly brexit. the outlook for the euro area fundamentally depends on global growth momentum. the escalation of trade tensions, the downturn in global manufacturing and a turn in the tech cycle have increased the euro area ’ s external headwinds. multilateral cooperation is needed to reduce trade frictions and mitigate risks of major disruptions to global economic activity and financial stability. preserving openness is crucial if the global economy is to thrive and secure its growth potential. the key elements of the post - crisis regulatory reforms have been agreed. we must remain committed to implementing them and evaluating their effects to ensure they are working as intended. at the same time, while progress has been made towards more resilient market - based finance, it is important to continue monitoring emerging risks and vulnerabilities in the financial system and to address them if necessary. the ecb sees a need for the global financial safety net ( gfsn ) to be further strengthened with a strong, quota - based and adequately resourced imf at its centre. in the absence of an agreement on an increase in imf quotas, the ecb would strongly welcome a substantial increase in the new arrangements to borrow as a second - best outcome towards ensuring that the fund has adequate resources. while the first line of defence for national and international stability is to