a value for investors. less liquid issuances of local governments or state agencies have to a higher degree suffered from private sector issuers with a government guarantee. in 2010, the government bond market may see increasing competition from other sectors, including covered bonds and corporate bonds, if the financial market continues to improve and investors gain risk appetite. this would be a positive sign of health in the financial system but also raise a concern about the government bond market in view of the record issuance requirements. secondary markets the secondary market has been more permanently hit by the crisis than primary markets. after the shock in september 2008, liquidity in the secondary market dried up, resulting in a significant widening of bid - ask spreads and a dramatic reduction of volumes, cf. chart 3. the situation has improved in 2009 with a narrowing of bid - ask spreads, but the secondary markets have still not normalised. it is important to restore transparency and confidence in the government bond market. some countries are successfully bringing more competition in the secondary market by implementing market making obligations based on relative performance among primary dealers instead of fixed maximum spreads and minimum volumes. future challenges over the summer, the financial markets have been characterised by stronger confidence in real economic developments, and the extensive political measures have contributed to increasing the risk appetite of investors. spreads in the money market have come down from a high of several hundred basis points to a level below pre - lehman. similarly, the spreads between european issuers have narrowed considerably. these factors indicate a significant improvement in financial conditions since the historical low in october 2008. the panic mood has ceased, but the enhanced market stability is to a high degree the result of continued public support measures. market conditions have still not normalised and the estimated government issuance need for 2010 is record high in many countries due to high redemptions and large budget deficits, cf. chart 4. compared to one year ago, debt managers and banks are however less nervous. the financial markets have improved and in light of the expectations of the future government funding requirements turnover in the primary and secondary market should increase. both debt managers and bankers have a mutual interest in restoring confidence in the market.

cyber hygiene practices are adopted. mas will soon issue a set of mandatory requirements on cyber hygiene that will apply to all financial institutions in singapore. they include basic things like : securing administrative accounts ; controlling network access at the perimeter ; installing security patches promptly ; installing anti - virus software on their systems ; and implementing multi - factor authentication for users who access confidential information over the internet. 8 / 10 bis central bankers'speeches in short, if we don ’ t get cyber security right, financial institutions will be constrained in how much they can leverage on technology. the second area financial institutions must address to ensure customer confidence is information security risk. information security is not the same as cyber security. information security is focused on protecting data, while cyber security is focused on protecting systems. they are however closely related. data leaks can occur when a system is not properly secured. in the financial ecosystem, information security risk is growing for two key reasons : one, more data are becoming digitised. the international data corporation has estimated that digital data will increase fivefold from 2018 to 2025. two, as banks begin to collaborate with fintech and bigtech players, customer data that was traditionally within the inner sanctum of banks will increasingly be shared with third party service providers. banks have to exercise care for the data they hold, as well as those that they have shared with third parties. this means : understanding at a granular level the data that are held, processed or shared ; assessing the criticality and sensitivity of all data sets ; putting in place targeted measures to safeguard data ; and taking swift recovery measures in the event of a data breach. besides their personal health data, people regard their personal financial data as most sensitive. financial institutions have a particular responsibility to safeguard this data. the third area to watch closely is risk from the misuse of data analytics and artificial intelligence. data analytics and artificial intelligence can help to uncover patterns which we are unaware of and to provide insights that we could not have gained from traditional analytical tools. but unless there is public trust that data analytics and artificial intelligence will be used responsibly, financial institutions will not get the social license they need to apply these technologies widely. to gain this trust, we must address four areas in data analytics and artificial intelligence : privacy of data. how do we safeguard the confidentiality of personal data? explainability of results. how do we minimise the “ black box ” syndrome? accountability for decisions. how can we hold humans ultimately responsible for decisions