benoit cœure : interview with europe 1 interview with mr benoit cœure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, and europe 1, conducted by mr patrick cohen on 15 june 2018 and broadcast on 15 june 2018. * * * for three years the ecb has been purchasing huge amounts of public and private debt. almost €2. 5 trillion has been injected into the euro area economy. yesterday, the ecb announced that all this would come to a stop at the end of the year. does that mean the crisis is over? indeed, we plan to stop these purchases after december. why? for two reasons. first, europe is seeing strong growth. at the beginning of the year this growth slowed a little, but we feel that it remains robust and will bounce back and continue. and second, inflation is returning towards 2 %, which is the ultimate goal of everything we do. but the policy was working, and now you ’ re stopping it? we ’ re stopping it precisely because it has worked. but it ’ s the asset purchases that we ’ re stopping. €2. 5 trillion is not an insignificant amount, and our asset purchases have been very effective. however, we ’ re going to keep interest rates very low, at their current levels, in other words close to zero, at least through the summer of 2019. so we ’ ll be sticking with a monetary policy that will support the economy for a very long time. you haven ’ t raised interest rates since 2011, and they remain very low. so they won ’ t rise before the summer of 2019 at the earliest? something else could happen, but we don ’ t anticipate raising rates before the summer of 2019, as you say, because the economy still needs some support. but if growth picks up, could interest rates for individuals and businesses increase? long - term interest rates for individuals and businesses are naturally increasing because global growth is picking up and because us interest rates are rising. so yes, people have to be prepared. and, inevitably, government borrowing rates will also increase, and so governments will also have to be prepared. you say that people will inevitably have to be prepared. does that include our personal loans, our mortgages, for example? yes, but as i said, not right away – short - term rates will remain very low, close to zero, for a very long time, and at least until the middle of 2019. yesterday the banque de france

jessica chew cheng lian : financial advisers the future – rise of the new wave keynote address by ms jessica chew cheng lian, assistant governor of the central bank of malaysia, at the 2nd annual conference of the association of financial advisers “ financial advisers the future – rise of the new wave ”, kuala lumpur, 31 october 2013. * * * it is my great pleasure to be here this morning at the 2nd annual conference of the association of financial advisers ( afa ). this year would be the eighth year that financial advisers have been a part of the financial landscape in malaysia. as the industry looks to the future, i think it is useful to also look back to the motivations for developing financial advisers in malaysia. fundamentally, the objective was to improve the quality of advice on insurance solutions that was being provided to consumers. before financial advisers, such advice was mainly only available in this country from tied agents and this system had certain limitations in terms of incentive structures and the breadth of products that the agent could draw on to advise consumers. a second objective, and perhaps one that has not been emphasized enough, is the expectation that financial advisers would be able to help individuals and households with a broader financial outlook. this means helping individuals and households understand how insurance fits within their broader financial management strategies to grow their savings, manage risk and meet specific financial goals. growth potential and opportunities over the last three years, the financial advisory industry saw total premiums transacted increase by an average annual growth of 21 %. while this is from a low base, the industry is on a sustained growth trajectory, which suggests that financial advisers are adding value and successfully distinguishing themselves from alternative channels for the distribution of insurance offerings. we are pleased to see a further three new financial advisers added to the industry this year. the industry has only begun to scrape the surface in harnessing the potential that exists for financial advisers to make a substantial contribution in helping malaysian households improve their financial management and prepare for income shocks. this potential is striking. every year, more than two million life and family takaful policies are sold, 69 % of this by tied agents. more than 40 % of the malaysian population still do not have any form of insurance, and a large proportion of those who do are likely to be significantly under - insured. this is supported by a recent study commissioned by bank negara malaysia which found that 79 % of more than 1, 000 respondents surveyed did not have enough financial buffers to sustain living expenses beyond 3