ravi menon : a competent, trusted, and clean financial centre welcome address by mr ravi menon, managing director of the monetary authority of singapore, at the wmi ( wealth management institute ) connection, singapore, 27 october 2011. * * * mr ng kok song, chairman of the wealth management institute, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. i am delighted to join you tonight, to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the wealth management institute ( wmi ). and i want to add a special word of congratulations to the 258 graduates who have recently completed wmi programmes ranging from the master of science in wealth management to the advanced wealth management programme. explosive growth in asian wealth across the world, we are seeing strong growth in the creation of wealth. globally, the wealth held by high net worth individuals1 has increased by 63 percent over the last ten years. 2 as at end - 2010, there were nearly 11 million high net worth individuals, compared to 7 million ten years ago. wealth is growing most rapidly in the asia - pacific region, accounting for more than half of the increase in global wealth last year. there are 3. 3 million high net worth individuals in the asia - pacific, 18 percent more than the pre - crisis peak. in fact, there are now more high net worth individuals in the asia pacific than in europe and almost as many as in north america. notwithstanding the challenges facing the global economy and the recent increase in market uncertainties, the ranks and fortunes of the wealthy are expected to continue growing rapidly. global wealth is assessed to have the potential to rise 50 percent over the next five years, spurred by a surging middle - class in the asia - pacific, latin america, and africa. the asia pacific region in particular is forecast to have the highest projected compound annual growth rate of 11. 4 percent for assets under management from 2010 – 2015. eight of the twenty fastest - growing high net worth markets are in the asia - pacific. wealth management – the singapore advantage as john rockefeller once asked “ the only question with wealth is, what do you do with it? ” those of you who manage wealth have a key role to play. you are at the heart of this explosion of wealth in asia and in serving the needs of your clients, you help to intermediate merrill lynch – capgemini world wealth reports and global private banking and wealth management – the new realities, by david maude. market defined in terms of individuals with financial wealth of more than us $ 1

##quacy and incomes. this is an important challenge, not just for sake of healthcare, but for the sake of retirement security. we need to move towards a fair, progressive and sustainable healthcare financing systems. if we don ’ t, then our ability to afford decent retirement for all our citizens, in a whole range of countries, is going to be severely compromised. emerging opportunities for insurance 29. let me move now to some of the emerging opportunities in the insurance industry. it is a difficult environment in many respects – i ’ ve spoken about low interest rates, here to stay for the long term. it ’ s also a crowded market in traditional insurable risks. you know that better than me. too much capital is chasing after the same risks in traditional insurance lines ( property and casualty for instance ), and that doesn ’ t help returns. 30. but there are still many viable options for growth, and here in emerging asia especially, there are major new underwriting opportunities. • the insurance market in emerging asia is projected to grow by 9 % per year over the next 10 years, which is substantially above the global growth of the insurance industry. • by 2020, asia is expected to account for 40 % of the insurance business. 31. there are three major opportunities that i will highlight briefly, besides traditional underwriting opportunities. infrastructure financing 32. first, infrastructure financing. it is a huge opportunity in asia. whichever infrastructure you look at – transportation, communication and power links, water and environmental sustainability – in every area the needs are growing, the need to remove bottlenecks to economic growth and social development are growing. 33. traditionally, it has been a sector that has been financed by governments and banks. governments will be constrained in the future, across the region. although banks currently have ample liquidity, they too will over time become more constrained. so that combination of governments and banks isn ’ t going to be able to cope with the rapid growth in financing for infrastructure in the future. • this is why institutional investors – insurers, pension funds and other long term investors – have become very important. for insurers, infrastructure is an attractive asset class. it is attractive as a potential diversifier of assets, and has the potential to provide reliable inflation - linked returns over time, and with low correlation to other conventional assets. 34. but we need quality data for infrastructure to take off as an asset class for long term investors. we need quality data for reliable performance benchmarks