3 bis central bankers'speeches gradually, patience and persistence in our monetary policy remain warranted. in the light of this, the governing council in january maintained all elements of its accommodative monetary policy stance. together, our monetary policy measures will preserve the ample degree of accommodation that remains necessary for inflation pressures to continue to build up and support headline inflation developments over the medium term. looking ahead, monetary policy will evolve in a data - dependent and time - consistent manner. once the governing council judges that the three criteria for sustained adjustment – convergence, confidence and resilience – have been met, net asset purchases will expire, in line with our guidance. from that point in time, the evolution of inflation will remain conditional on reinvestments continuing for an extended period of time and on policy rates remaining at their present levels well past the end of our net asset purchases. the stock of long - duration assets held in our portfolio will continue to put downward pressure on longer - term interest rates well beyond the end of our net purchases. policy rates remaining at their present levels well past the end of our net purchases will contribute to holding the short to intermediate portions of the yield curve in check for as long as necessary, thereby ensuring that financial conditions remain consistent with a sustained adjustment of inflation. 1 i would like to thank danielle kedan for her support in preparing this speech. 2 see, for example, the european commission ’ s “ european economic forecast – autumn 2017 ”. potential growth was estimated at 1. 4 % for 2017 and 1. 5 % for 2018 and 2019. 3 for more details, see the box entitled “ the targeted longer - term refinancing operations : an overview of the take - up and their impact on bank intermediation ”, economic bulletin, issue 3, ecb, 2017. 4 see the ecb ’ s euro area bank lending survey, january 2018, and the ecb ’ s survey on the access to finance of enterprises in the euro area, april to september 2017. 5 see the box entitled “ assessing labour market slack ”, economic bulletin, issue 3, ecb, 2017. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches

financial centre. they provide confidence for financial institutions and customers to do business here. mas pays close attention to the design of financial regulation to ensure that they are risk - based and not more burdensome than necessary to meet regulatory objectives. • an example is the financial holding companies ( fhcs ) bill that is currently before parliament. • mas will not regulate all fhcs. the bill will give mas the flexibility on whether or not to regulate a particular fhc, taking into consideration, for instance, whether the fhc ’ s subsidiaries are important to singapore ’ s financial system. mas consults the industry and other stakeholders when introducing significant new regulation. the exception of course is where the issue is market sensitive. we consult at an early stage on the broad policy proposals as well as in the later stages of detailed rule - making. we carefully consider all feedback on the impact of new regulation and implementation issues, and adjust the proposals where appropriate. this helps mas to calibrate the rules in a way that is appropriate for our market. • take for example, the recent proposed changes to the regulatory capital framework for holders of capital markets services licenses. mas briefed the industry, consulted extensively, and conducted quantitative impact studies. • in response to feedback, mas has decided to provide a longer transition period of two years for industry to comply with the new rules. bis central bankers ’ speeches • mas will also revise its calibration of the operational risk capital charge. • final details of the regulatory capital framework will be announced by june this year. diverse ecosystem the second pillar : singapore has a diverse financial ecosystem. the various parts of the financial sector not only serve important functions in their own right, but are mutually reinforcing. • the world economic forum has ranked singapore 2nd worldwide for financial market development – a testament to the depth and breadth of singapore ’ s financial sector. a full - fledged financial centre singapore provides a broad and integrated suite of financial services. we are an important regional funding centre. • the asian dollar market, with its total asset size of more than 1 trillion us dollars, has played a key role in serving the financing and treasury needs of individuals, corporates, and institutions in singapore and the region. we are the premier asset management centre in asia, acting as gateway to the world for asian investors and for the world to tap asian investments. • assets under management by singapore - based managers have more than quadrupled over the last decade to reach 1 trillion us dollars in