priorities or key trends here. first, i would say what we have seen in the past year showed that our implementation of the standards must constantly adapt to changing circumstances. 16. while we all had business continuity plans ( bcp ), these were unavoidably limited in scope. for example, we never expected that banks and their customers, as well as banking 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches supervisors, would all be in the same situation of working remotely. certainly we cannot predict future events, but we can say that our collective responses to covid in terms of bcp have so far stood up to the test. that said, in order to achieve the step - change we all aspire to, and deliver better outcomes, it will be essential for governments, regulators and the private sector to continue to be adaptable in how we approach aml / cft work. 17. i have just now provided examples of how we fully used the built - in flexibility of the risk - based approach, together with the application of technology, to deliver an effective response to some of the challenges of covid - 19. we acted quickly, and with no change required to the standards that all of our systems are based upon. 18. at the same time, we must not simply regard fatf standards, as well as mutual evaluations ( me ), as simply compliance - orientated or, in the case of mes, static assessments that take place once every eight or nine years. hong kong received a good fatf score card in 2019, but that only means that we are capable of doing more, sharing more, and contributing to better outcomes globally in a continuous manner. 19. going forward, i believe that being adaptable in our implementation efforts will require changes in the way we do things. more specifically, while the pandemic continues to challenge all of us, i think it should be a catalyst for the wider adoption of latest technology, in the form of regulatory technology ( regtech ), as well as more efficient and effective aml / cft measures. those i believe are also the views of david lewis, executive secretary of the fatf who also said “ as aml professionals, we all need to take more risks and stop just ticking the boxes. ” i think he is referring to the much needed adaptability in our implementation efforts. the guidance from the fatf is reassuring in this regard, and this leads to my second point. the aml / cft

services. that has also allowed banks and other financial institutions to protect their workforces through work - from - home arrangements, and provided data analytics to raise red flags on networks of covid - 19 fraud accounts. at the hkma, we are committed to supporting innovation that works for all types of customers and for both small and large institutions. we also recognise that our regulatory framework needs to keep pace – focusing on outcomes, and being forward - looking. it is therefore not surprising to see that our fintech supervisory sandbox and chatroom have seen high levels of demand for early supervisory engagement on potential use cases. 7. second, public – private partnerships between law enforcement agencies, regulators and financial institutions exhibited a remarkable growth in the last three years, including in hong kong. that brought about clear improvements to our ability to identify and disrupt financial crime. let me give you some idea of the results that the partnership in hong kong is capable of delivering. since its launch in 2017, actions taken by banks through the fraud and money laundering intelligence taskforce ( fmlit ) have led to hk $ 692 million being restrained or confiscated – that is the proceeds of financial crime, investment scams, fraud 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches and other serious crimes. 8. and thirdly, there has been an increasing cultural change in the banks that we supervise – a move away from an overarching desire to simply “ tick the boxes ”. aml work is now increasingly viewed as more of a multi - dimensional activity, to which the understanding of risks – both current and future – is central and fundamental. there is a much broader acceptance that it is this understanding of the risks which then determines which tools to use, and which tools to develop for possible future use, in order to tackle new and emerging threats. using effective tools in turn helps focus our limited resources on the highest risks, and coordinate the public and private sectors to work together to achieve the best outcomes. 9. so all those three elements i spoke about three years ago have seen impressive progress, particularly with how the aml eco - system has responded to the challenges that covid - 19 has brought, across all sectors and all regions. perhaps it will also be helpful for me to refer to a few practical examples here. 10. first, on covid - 19 scams, those cases have had economic and social effects that are farreaching and often very nasty. much - needed funds have been diverted away from government efforts to contain