for example, directors of bp have been sued by shareholders over the costs associated with the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. directors of aig were also sued for not adequately monitoring the firm ’ s exposure to the subprime mortgage market. 9. directors should not become defensive or legalistic in face of these challenges. instead, they need to equip themselves with the appropriate skills and knowledge, to enable them to ask the right questions and make the right decisions. apart from experience, training is one important way to equip our directors. current levels of directors ’ training 10. companies here are gaining awareness of the importance of having well - trained directors, and proactively providing training for them. last year, sid and the singapore exchange, or “ sgx ”, published the “ singapore board of directors survey ”. according to the survey, the proportion of companies providing relevant training to non - executive directors increased from 25 % in 2005 to 41 % in 2008. but the survey also showed an increase in the number of directors who received no training. this is a trend that sid should address early. 11. i understand that sid and sgx are currently conducting another similar survey. hopefully, this survey will show more companies providing training for their directors and more directors attending such structured training. areas for focus 12. next, allow me to outline some areas where directors can focus their training efforts on. the sid and sgx survey highlighted that risk management was the most important area for further training. directors have a responsibility to manage the risks of a company. their involvement in risk management extends from heading off cases of egregious fraud, to ensuring that management does not take on excessive risk. 13. directors also need to stay abreast of the latest developments in regulations and best practices. to this effect, companies should put in place continuing training programmes for their directors. 14. mas has recognised the importance of this by proposing new provisions on “ continuous development ” in the corporate governance regulations and guidelines for locally - incorporated banks and significant life insurers. 15. the proposed provisions require the boards of such companies to establish a continuing development programme for all directors, and a framework to identify relevant skills for such directors. nominating committees should assess at least once a year, whether directors lack any skills to perform their roles. 16. besides getting the right training, directors must set the right tone for the company ’ s culture. core values like honesty, integrity and fairness which underpin

inflation remains below its historical average and the current policy stance remains appropriate for now. mas is closely watching developments on global and domestic prices. core inflation is rising from a low base. while recent domestic developments may check the pace of price increases in the near term, inflation is likely to remain on its broad recovery path. mas will be alert to any indications of acceleration or persistence in inflation. market liquidity mas has continued to keep domestic liquidity conditions accommodative to support the recovery. singapore dollar interest rates have remained at low levels since they eased in march last year alongside global interest rates. the 3 - month compounded sora has averaged 0. 18 % since the beginning of this year, which is more than 0. 5 % lower than the levels seen in q1 last year. 4 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches mas has comprehensively expanded its liquidity facilities – in four ways : what currency we lend in ; how long we lend for ; what rate we lend at ; and what collateral we take. the mas usd facility has helped to maintain stable us dollar funding conditions. since its introduction in march last year on the back of a swap line with the us federal reserve, the mas usd facility has provided us $ 25 billion to banks for use in singapore and the region. alongside the extension of the fed swap line, mas has extended the usd facility to enddecember 2021. the mas sgd term facility has extended the tenor of singapore dollar lending from overnight to up to three months. the facility was set up pre - emptively to meet higher precautionary demand for sgd liquidity by banks and finance companies. this helped promote more stable funding conditions and support credit intermediation to businesses and households. the mas sgd facility for esg loans has provided funding at 0. 1 % to financial institutions for lending to small and medium enterprises under the esg loan schemes. the facility, which has helped to reduce the borrowing costs for viable businesses, has been extended till end - september 2021. as of 31 march 2021, about s $ 11 billion was lent to eligible financial institutions, catalysing around s $ 17 billion of esg loans and benefitting more than 22, 000 firms. utilisation of the facility was lower in 2021 compared to 2020 as the cashflows of firms improved. mas has expanded the pool of acceptable collateral that banks may provide in return for the mas usd facility and the sgd term facility. the domestic systemic