lee hsien loong : remaking singapore's financial sector speech by mr lee hsien loong, deputy prime minister of singapore and chairman of the monetary authority of singapore, at a mas staff seminar, singapore, 29 october 2002. * i. * * introduction we are gathering in an uncertain environment. on the economic front, asia ’ s key export markets – the us, eu and japan – remain weak, blighting south east asia ’ s prospects for recovery. in northeast asia, china ’ s vitality and transformation continues to dominate investor interest. after september 11, security has become the top concern worldwide. the bomb blasts in bali and the recent hostage taking in moscow are sobering reminders that the war on international terrorism has just begun. all these developments have implications for singapore ’ s growth prospects and our aspirations to become a world - class financial centre. certainly, these are challenging times. but if we could suspend the present for a moment, let us cast our minds back to 1997, when we embarked on this journey to remake our financial sector. ii. reflecting on the last 5 years five years ago, the global financial landscape was undergoing dramatic changes. financial markets were becoming more integrated, with freer and faster flows of information and capital. globalisation was boosting liquidity and facilitating growth. but it was also transmitting market disturbances with greater speed and virulence, and complicating the conduct of monetary and exchange rate policies. globalisation, coupled with deregulation, technological change, and borderless competition, was revolutionising the way financial institutions competed and did business. there was a wave of mergers and acquisitions, as institutions sought to diversify risks, reduce costs, and exploit synergies. financial centres faced similar pressures. as technology eroded time - zone advantages, institutions consolidated their activities within fewer financial centres. we believed that consolidation was imminent in our time zone. if there were to be only a few financial centres left in asia, we wanted to make sure that singapore was one of them. so we launched a fundamental rethink of our approach to supervising and developing the financial sector. creating a more conducive regulatory environment our new approach could be broadly summarised in four main thrusts. first, we sought to create a more conducive regulatory environment to foster dynamism and innovation, while maintaining the safety and soundness of our financial sector. mas shifted its emphasis from regulation to risk - focused supervision, so that we could

time. green bonds are also gaining traction, with local and foreign issuers issuing over s $ 2 billion of green bonds here. the life insurance industry is doing well, with net premiums growing by 16 % p. a. over 2016 and 2017. growth was boosted by asian consumers demanding more savings and investment products in search of yield. non - life insurance business is, however, facing structural challenges and weak growth. net non - life premiums grew by just 2 % p. a. over 2016 and 17. 7 / 11 bis central bankers'speeches business conditions have been challenging globally, due to excess capacity and downward pressure on premiums. but singapore remains attractive as the premier reinsurance hub in asia. global reinsurance players such as swiss re and munich re have recently set up their regional headquarters here. and we are making a push into alternative risk solutions such as risk pools and insurancelinked securities or ils. foreign exchange trading declined last year although we remain the third largest fx centre globally. singapore ’ s average daily fx trading volume grew by 20. 5 % in 2016 but declined by 6. 7 % in 2017. this was mainly due to lower volatility in key currencies such as the japanese yen ; and some temporary trading desk turnover which has since been filled. we are making headway in our strategy to position singapore as an e - trading hub for fx, facilitating better price discovery during asian hours and better execution for players in the region. xtx markets, a global fx liquidity provider, has announced its plans to set up its pricing and trading engine in singapore. we are working with other key banks and e - trading platforms in the pipeline. jobs and skills let me move on to the second pillar of the itm — jobs and skills. more finance professionals are going for training and development. some 27, 000 financial industry professionals have benefited from skillsfuture programmes during 2016 - 2017. there remains, however, a shortfall of specialised talent in it — which we are addressing in two ways : mas, imda, the institute of banking and finance and institutes of higher learning are working together to deepen the local it talent pool at the entry level. ibf is engaging financial institutions on developing local it talent through company - led training and professional conversion programmes ( pcps ). we have ramped up efforts to reskill and redeploy banking professionals into emerging roles. job roles are changing as banks pivot towards digital banking models over