technological university launched a new minor for risk management and insurance this year. we are also pleased that the general insurance association has launched the global internship programme in may last year to provide deserving undergraduates with exposure to the wider insurance industry, both locally and overseas. we believe that the current downturn is also an opportunity to invest in developing talent for the longer term. we have, as part of a nation wide effort to encourage manpower development, recently announced enhancements of up to 90 % co - funding for training schemes under the financial sector development fund. we want to share the risks and costs with financial institutions in this climate to retain and develop talent. in addition, mas has also announced that it would set aside s $ 15 million to support fresh local university graduates in industry attachments over the next 1 - 2 years. closing as an international financial centre, singapore needs to continually build on its fundamentals. we have to retain and enhance trust and confidence among investors and businesses here by continuing to provide socio - political stability, respected regulatory standards and a wellregarded legal regime. underpinning all these efforts is a highly skilled and professional talent pool. axa ’ s decision to locate its training centre here will therefore go a long way to support this effort. on that note, i would like to extend my heartiest congratulations once again to the axa group for the launch of the axa university asia - pacific campus in singapore. i wish you every success in this very important endeavour. have a great evening, thank you.

##uance of catastrophe bonds have grown strongly and total catastrophe bonds outstanding reached a new high of almost usd 30 billion as at the third quarter of this year. this is despite the persistent reinsurance headwinds of excess capacity and depressed rates. 13 catastrophe bonds present unique benefits to reinsurers : they provide multi - year capacity and pricing certainty ; they are more secure due to their fully collateralised nature and ability to be rated ; they are a good alternative to traditional reinsurance for risks that are hard to model ; and they are capital - efficient. 14 to an investor, catastrophe bonds proffer strong benefits too : their low correlation with the 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches financial markets make them an effective asset diversification instrument ; they have low volatility and stable returns ; they provide liquidity ; and they can be issued via private placements or as tradable securities. 15 we are therefore seeing a growing cluster of institutional investors and fund managers like quantedge exploring allocation into catastrophe bonds, as they venture into niche and specialised strategies to extract better risk - adjusted returns. 16 on the supply side, we too have seen healthy interest from asia - pacific issuers in the development of an apac market for catastrophe bond issuances, due to the proximity to and better understanding of the underlying risks. 17 given the above, the mas has thus taken progressive strides towards developing the catastrophe bond market in singapore. 18 as a first step, we have formed an alternative risk transfer work - group comprising industry experts in the ils space. chaired by jon paradine of renaissance re, the work - group advises the mas on specific initiatives that will support the development of singapore as an ils hub. 19 today, i am happy to announce one such initiative – the newly created ils grant scheme. to catalyse the development of singapore ’ s ils market, the mas will fund 100 % of the upfront costs incurred in issuing catastrophe bonds out of singapore. this grant will run from 1 january 2018 and will be applicable to ils bonds covering all forms of risks beyond just natural catastrophe risks. 20 it is my hope that this grant scheme will encourage insurers and reinsurers to consider issuing a catastrophe bond here. in fact, mas is already working with key industry players such as iag re singapore with a view to issuing a catastrophe bond in singapore. this is but the first step of a longer journey, as we look forward to working more closely with the industry to further