in contrast, unlike the 1990s, we no longer talk about how life insurance offices ’ mortgage lending activities might return to their 1950s and 1960s levels of importance. see, for example, debelle g ( 2013 ), “ funding the resources investment boom ”, address to the melbourne institute public economic forum, canberra, 16 april. bis central bankers ’ speeches 7. 8. more generally, how the system evolves to these forces is impossible to fully comprehend ahead of time. – twenty years ago, for example, it would have been very hard to see exactly how the competitive dynamics would play out in the banking sector. in the housing loan market, discounts became increasingly common ( and larger ) while in the credit card market banks initially competed through loyalty programs rather than through lower interest rates. – furthermore, there was a view in the mid 1990s that a rapid expansion in the debt market could be driven by the growth of superannuation funds, but it was unclear whether any disintermediation would be most pronounced in the corporate bond or mortgage markets. – likewise, while people understood that new distribution methods in the banking sector were likely to evolve, few people would have appreciated the move from atms and telephone banking to internet banking and banking on our mobile phones. – this reflects the fact that technology progresses in ways that we can ’ t imagine. – differences in incentives and the starting position of market participants matter a lot in terms of behaviours and subsequent developments. – society ’ s attitudes towards efficiency and risk evolve and are very much shaped by the course of history. someone born in the depression had a different attitude to risk than a baby boomer who in turn probably has a different attitude to risk than someone gaining financial literacy in the current environment. a key consequence of this last point is that the industry and regulators have to ensure that institutions are resilient to short - run shocks but are able to adjust to longer - run secular trends with adequate consideration for both competition and financial system stability. with these three papers providing a sound foundation, where to now? just as there are differences in opinions on some of the issues raised in these papers, there will also be different views about how to prioritise these areas for the next stage of the review. but as i said earlier, i think one of the most useful outcomes of the work to date is the articulation of a coherent framework with which to consider the question. that said, i think one of the key areas that requires more work

peter pang : the sme sector – an important pillar of many economies statement by mr peter pang, deputy chief executive of the hong kong monetary and head of delegation, at the 44th asian development bank annual meeting, hanoi, 5 may 2011. * * * i would like to thank the government and the people of viet nam for their warm hospitality in hosting this year ’ s annual meeting of the asian development bank. i would also like to take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences to the people of japan affected by the recent tragic events. the global recovery has gained traction, with emerging asia in particular rebounding strongly from the global financial crisis. compared with the last asian financial crisis, the damage to the real economy of the region was much more contained this time. this is in large part attributable to the reforms taken by regional economies over the years to strengthen economic fundamentals and improve the resilience of their banking and financial systems. in addition, a number of regional economies have also promptly taken temporary extraordinary measures to support their economies and cushion the impact on employment. a number of these supportive measures were targeted at assisting the small and medium - sized enterprise ( sme ) sector, which is an important pillar of many economies. smes play a crucial role in the economic growth and job creation of both developing and advanced economies. in hong kong, china, for instance, smes account for 98 % of business establishments and employ nearly half of the total workforce. they provide a broad range of employment opportunities and play an important role in reducing urban poverty. it is no exaggeration to say that when smes thrive, the economy prospers. this is also true vice versa. smes are particularly vulnerable to economic downturns, as banks often reduce their lending to the sme sector due to credit concerns. the exceptional severity of the credit crunch during the global financial crisis has therefore posed great challenges to the smes. in response, the government of hong kong, china swiftly rolled out a temporary hk $ 100 bn special loan guarantee scheme ( slgs ) in december 2008 to alleviate the difficulty of smes in obtaining bank finance and the potential surge in unemployment due to the closing down of smes. together with other short - term government stimulus measures, the slgs has been successful in supporting the smes to sail through this once - in - a - century crisis and limit the potential knock - on impact on the economy. unemployment rate increased by a modest 2. 3