- effective the cover. • it is therefore important to allow cross - border provision of insurance services. capital market integration in capital markets, asean has made good progress in integration, starting with thailand, malaysia and singapore. concrete measures have been put in place to harmonise disclosure requirements and broaden market linkages. for investors, the asean trading link among thailand, malaysia and singapore provides a single gateway to all three exchanges. bis central bankers ’ speeches • this means an investor in one country can buy shares in the other two markets through his local stockbroker. for issuers, thailand, malaysia and singapore have adopted fully harmonised prospectus disclosure requirements, known as the asean disclosure standards. • this means an issuer can tap all three markets with a single set of prospectus, yielding greater efficiency and cost savings. • a streamlined review framework for such prospectuses is targeted to be implemented later this year. this will shorten the time taken for the issuer to obtain approval for a multi - jurisdictional offering and provide greater certainty on the timeto - market. for fund managers, thailand, malaysia and singapore have launched the asean collective investment scheme framework, which is a mutual recognition framework providing fund managers with a streamlined authorisation process for the cross - border offering of funds. • this means that a fund manager authorised to manage a fund in one country can market the same fund in the other asean countries. these are significant steps towards achieving an integrated asean capital market. but they are not enough. in fact, it is like a bridge three - quarters completed. it marks good progress but is not quite useful until it is end - to - end. and end - to - end integration is what we need to fully realise the benefits of our efforts on the capital market front. asean needs to continue enhancing linkages across its markets. • we should build on the asean trading link among thailand, malaysia and singapore by further broadening and deepening post - trade linkages. • establishing clearing, settlement, and custody links will make the asean trading link a full - fledged end - to - end platform across the three asean markets. and with the progressive participation of the other asean exchanges, we would have created a truly integrated asean capital market – one that will : • enhance trading volumes ; • lower the cost of corporate fund raising ; • provide investors with more choice and ease of access ; and • enhance liquidity and stability in the market. conclusion to achieve its potential, asean must integrate further. economic

that help to foster a stable global financial system. in that regard, we contributed actively to initiatives of other forums such as bis, fsf, iais and fatf, in the areas of financial stability, regulation and supervision, corporate governance and antimoney laundering. vi ensuring business continuity in the area of business continuity management ( bcm ), mas conducted several exercises last year to ensure the effectiveness of our bcm plans. we also inspected bcm plans of major financial institutions ( fis ) and found that fis are generally prepared. for example, during the recent blackout, affected fis continued operations smoothly on back - up power and activated their incident management process to verify that their buildings and operations were functioning normally. the blackout had minimal impact on the financial sector. vii accounts let me now move on to the mas ’ financial statements. mas ’ total assets grew 16. 8 % during the year ended 31 march 2004 to s $ 179. 7 billion. the currency fund ’ s assets, at the financial year - end, exceeded the s $ 14. 6b currency in circulation, providing 110 % asset backing. mas posted a net profit of s $ 5. 0 billion for the year due to higher returns from mas ’ foreign investments in buoyant financial markets globally. viii further enhancing transparency of mas ’ operations in this annual report, we have included a new section that highlights our key achievements and work in progress. to enhance transparency of our decision making framework, we also disclosed details of the board committees in the annual report. conclusion in closing, mas continues to be focused on supporting non - inflationary economic growth, developing the financial sector and enhancing the supervisory framework for a sound and resilient financial sector. the economy is expected to do well this year. the imf / world bank financial system stability assessment concluded that our financial sector is robust, and our legal, supervisory and institutional framework is sound. rating agencies like standard & poors, moody ’ s, and fitch continue to re - affirm the strength of our economic fundamentals, which underpin our status as the only asian country with a triple a sovereign credit rating on both domestic and foreign currency debt. we are committed to singapore ’ s vision as a leading financial centre. we continue to stay abreast of market developments and industry concerns and uphold our high standards of regulation and supervision. we will work with the industry to continue to develop a more dynamic, competitive and vibrant financial sector.