and philippines, have for example revised their accounting standards to bring them more in line with international standards. corporate governance in singapore corporate governance in singapore has similarly undergone evolution. i shall leave it to the speakers from the singapore institute of directors and the singapore exchange to share on these more fully. i will talk briefly instead about our overall approach to corporate governance. regulatory framework – balance of mandatory rules and best practices first, let me touch on the regulatory framework for corporate governance. in recent years, we have moved away from a merit - based approach towards a disclosure - based approach. the objective is to equip market participants with better information, let them take responsibility for making their own decisions and to judge the quality of the corporate governance of companies. but a disclosure - based approach can only work well if it is backed up by a robust enforcement regime. this is key to maintaining the confidence of market participants in the disclosure - based regime. in recent years, our regulatory authorities have acted decisively in the face of breaches by market participants, such as in the cases of accs, citiraya and china aviation oil. equally important for a disclosure - based regime is the raising of the bar on corporate governance standards themselves. singapore ’ s approach here is a flexible one, recognising the need to cater to a range of companies of different sizes and resources. it comprises a balance of mandatory rules, captured in our legislation and listing rules, and best practice recommendations in the form of the code of corporate governance. listed companies are required to either adopt the best practice recommendations or to disclose instances where they have not done so and provide explanations for these – in other words companies must “ comply or explain ”. we will keep both our legislation and best practice codes up to date through regular refinement, so that they stay relevant to a changing environment. we will also keep close watch on developments internationally, to see if they might be relevant to the singapore environment. for example, the uk has enacted a new companies act 2006 in which the duties of directors have been codified. recently, there have been discussions between the institute of certified public accountants of singapore, or icpas, and the singapore institute of directors, or sid, regarding directors ’ responsibilities for the internal controls and accounting policies and estimates that are relevant to companies ’ financial statements, and how these responsibilities of directors should be reflected in auditors ’ reports. this recent issue illustrates the importance for clarity on directors ’ duties amongst all stakeholders. the accounting

lesetja kganyago : south africa ’ s september 2014 financial stability review introductory remarks by mr lesetja kganyago, deputy governor of the south african reserve bank, at the launch of the september 2014 financial stability review, johannesburg branch of the south african reserve bank, johannesburg, 29 october 2014. * * * members of the press, guests and colleagues, welcome to the release of the september 2014 edition of the financial stability review. the financial stability review has been published semi - annually since 2004 which makes this year its tenth anniversary. in addition to its primary objective of price stability, the bank also oversees and maintains financial stability. in pursuit of this mandate and to contain systemic risk, the bank continually assesses the stability and efficiency of the key components of the financial system and formulates and reviews policies for intervention and crisis resolution. through the publication of its financial stability review the bank endeavours to communicate its assessment of potential risks to financial system stability. the bank also strives to enhance the understanding of, and encourage informed debate on these complex and challenging matters related to financial stability. south africa is in the process of reforming its financial - sector regulatory architecture by implementing a twin peaks model of financial regulation. under this approach, supervisory roles will be streamlined between the bank and the financial services board. the financial sector regulation bill, 2013, gives primary responsibility to the bank for promoting financial stability. in terms of this bill, a newly created prudential authority within the bank will be responsible for the prudential supervision of banks, insurers, financial conglomerates and financial market infrastructures. the financial services board, in future to be known as the financial conduct authority, will be responsible for consumer protection through its marketconduct regulation and supervision. the bank transformed its financial stability unit into a fully - fledged financial stability department with effect from 1 april 2014, and elevated the status of the financial stability committee which has been in existence since 2000 to include deployment of macro prudential tools. the financial stability review is currently being revamped in line with the explicit financial stability mandate of the bank and global best practice. the revamped publication will report in more detail on financial stability policy decisions once the new architecture is in place. the financial stability department is in the process of developing a toolkit of macro - prudential policy instruments in addition to further refining its monitoring framework for financial stability, developing a top - down stress testing model and preparing policy proposals for the development of a resolution