. since the beginning of last year, the daily value of bitcoin against the us dollar has fluctuated about 20 times more than the singapore dollar did against the us dollar. people may buy some crypto tokens to speculate on their values. but with such volatility, i doubt they will put their retirement savings into them. crypto tokens also fail as a unit of account. how many entities do we know of, which maintain 1 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches their financial statements in crypto tokens? so, does it mean that crypto tokens can never become money? with technology, we can never say never. a second generation of crypto tokens is emerging, to address some of the current challenges related to network congestion, transaction time, energy costs, money laundering risks, and importantly, price stability. some of the best minds in the field are applying their creative energies to make crypto tokens mainstream. not all developers and programmers in the crypto world are anti - establishment anarchists. many may have been 10 years ago, but a growing number are married and have kids now! they know the value of stability. the litmus test will be public trust and acceptance. basically, the history of privately issued money has not been an inspiring one. will people put their faith in money that is not backed by a trusted public institution like a central bank dedicated to protecting its value? perhaps – if an algorithm can mimic the reaction function of a central bank and preserve the value of the crypto token better than central banks can do with respect to fiat currencies. we have to wait and see. the good, bad, and ugly of crypto tokens whether crypto tokens become money or not, they are here and they pose a variety of issues – the good, the bad, and the ugly. let me start with the good. as many have pointed out, far more significant than the crypto token is the underlying blockchain technology that these tokens help to power. the blockchain has two distinct characteristics that hold promise. first, it is a distributed ledger. it provides a record of who owns a given asset at any moment in time and an immutable record of all transactions in that asset. second, it is a protocol for establishing trust among diverse parties in a decentralised system : where everyone has access to the same record ; the data are secured by advanced cryptography ; and transactions are executed by

york city, but ironically, their action resulted in a significant shortage of liquidity in the nation ’ s financial center. in consequence, short - term interest rates increased rapidly, and the new york money market lost its functionality. the contagious impact was also observed in overseas financial markets such as london. 2 the federal reserve system, which serves as the u. s. central bank, was created by an act of congress on december 23, 1913. for details see robert f. bruner and sean d. carr ( 2007 ), “ the panic of 1907 : lessons learned from the market ’ s perfect storm, ” wiley, john wiley & sons, inc., hoboken, new jersey. bis central bankers ’ speeches in this speech, i will focus on the determinants of the resiliency of a financial system, and the role of regional cooperation in seeking a more stable and resilient system. here, i argue that it is of utmost importance to build a liberalized, transparent, and deep financial market and system, without arbitrary intervention, whether formal or informal. in particular, from an asian regional perspective, i would like to emphasize the need to improve the region ’ s financial infrastructure, including its payment and settlement systems, so that financial markets can maintain their functionality even during a crisis. in the following, i will first review a variety of policy efforts introduced in the region since the asian currency crisis to address the risks related mainly to massive capital outflows. this is followed by my views on how to cope with harmful volatility in the financial market and system. finally, i will conclude by emphasizing the importance of improving payment and settlements systems in the region. 2. successful efforts since the asian currency crisis : but don ’ t be too complacent the more than ten years since the asian currency crisis has literally been a period of reform for asian financial markets. bearing the important lessons in mind, asian authorities have made a variety of policy efforts to strengthen the resilience of their economies and financial markets, including the self - insurance of accumulating foreign reserves, multilateral swap agreements under the “ chiang mai initiative ”, 3 and reduction of their dependency on off - shore short - term funding. they have also endeavored to and succeeded in improving their fiscal positions. coupled with the high growth potential of asian economies, these policy efforts have proved effective in helping asia steer through the global financial crisis, often called the “ financial tsunami ”,