improve its strategic and operational decision - making. moreover, banks will need to overhaul their operations, accelerate end - to - end digitization, modernize their technology infrastructure, and transition towards digital channels. mckinsey estimates that banks worldwide could save more than $ 400 billion a year in direct costs by shifting traditional customers to digital platforms, reducing the service cost by 80 to 90 %. by winning the battle for efficiency, banks will not only be able to better engage with customers and achieve higher satisfaction rates, but also curtail operational cost. central bank of kuwait - public عام - بنك الكويت المركزي - 12 - iv. battle for resilience winning the battles for customer loyalty, value and efficiency will help banks to grow and remain relevant. but that growth should not compromise banks ’ soundness or sustainability. this bring us to the fourth battle : the battle for resilience. once again, this is an area where technology, data management and analytics can help banks enhance their risk management functions and strengthen their resilience. banks need to ensure that they have robust capital and liquidity levels, as reflected in a traditional stability matrix, to absorb shocks and effectively manage their risks. but they can further enhance their risk identification and management by analyzing economic, market and customer data in real time. institutions will no longer have to wait for analysts to review the market at monthly or quarterly intervals and then map this back to the customers, assets or the bank ’ s off - balance sheet exposure. through artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analysis, banks can remain up - to - date on risks and exposures in real time, from detecting individual cases of fraud to overall balance sheet exposure across products and business functions. as the market moves and news breaks, tools based on data analytics can immediately update executives on the potential impact of these events on their business. v. battle for talent none of the battles can be won without the right people. people are at the core of everything we do, and they are the ones who will bring everything together. this brings us to the fifth battle : the battle for talent. as the banking industry goes through a radical transition, banks will need to widen their talent pools and attract central bank of kuwait - public عام - بنك الكويت المركزي - 13 - a broader range of skills, in line with their shifting business models and changing

also need more data to monitor unregulated financial institutions and markets. in recent years, significant steps have been taken to identify the data gaps and to fill them by gathering more and more detailed quantitative information. but we are just at the beginning of this process, and i know that statisticians are all too well aware of the fact that the data perimeter may change again in the future. it is vital that the work done at the european union level is consistent with the worldwide dimension. in 2009, the g20 endorsed a report on “ the financial crisis and information gaps ”. that report contains 20 high - level recommendations on the measurement of risks in the financial sector, international financial linkages and the communication of official statistics. bis central bankers ’ speeches quite some progress has been made in the implementation of these recommendations. for example, accounts for economic sectors, statistics on securities, and the principal global indicators website supported by seven international organisations, including the ecb. but it is still necessary to continue with these efforts, in particular on quarterly government finance statistics and on the fsb common template for systemically important global financial institutions. and the transposition of the new rules into all national legal systems needs to proceed swiftly. the role of statisticians going beyond the pure data challenges, the statistical community is still coming to grips with the fact that their work is now more than ever in the spotlight of public debate. “ statistical errors ” were once something in which only specialists were really interested. now, they can receive headline coverage, sometimes even more so than everything else coming out of both official and non - official statistical sources. public scrutiny is good for statistics but it also brings new challenges for statisticians. alongside their more traditional role of collecting data and assisting in the correct interpretation of data, statisticians also need now to be more involved in the communication of results – to the markets, to the media and to the wider public. the role of dashboards and the narrative use of data are examples of tools where the input of statisticians is clearly essential. selected ecb statistical initiatives to fill data gaps together with the rest of the eurosystem, the ecb is undertaking a number of important statistical initiatives to support fulfilment of the ecb ’ s mandate to deliver price stability and the esrb ’ s mandate to mitigate systemic risk. the initiatives will also help other policy - makers and decision - makers. let me briefly mention three of these initiatives : first, the