political resolve. as a result, investment is not well diversified and may not be optimally matched with savings, and the financial system is fragmented along national lines, severely limiting the potential benefits of the single market. in principle, the problem is not one of scarce resources. in fact, the euro area runs a significant current account surplus, meaning that there are savings that could be channeled towards worthwhile investment opportunities. but more ambition is required to achieve welldeveloped and integrated capital markets in europe. the lack of specific alternative funding channels or sources can hinder investment particularly in higher - risk projects - startups, intangibles and innovation - which depend on venture capital or other specialised sources of market - based financing in their early stages. small and medium - sized enterprises generally also encounter problems in tapping capital, owing to reduced access to market finance. there are several obstacles contributing to fragmentation. first, an investor seeking to diversify its portfolio by having exposures to companies in different countries must deal with legal barriers. the most telling example is the lack of harmonisation of insolvency regimes, which vary widely across jurisdictions for financial and non - financial corporations, as a result of different cultural traditions and legal frameworks. second, this investor might face different regulations, as the process of strengthening the pan - european regulators is still incomplete. this is a more pressing question as markets become more integrated and technologically complex. brexit entails a significant risk of further fragmentation, as some companies and transactions may relocate to several different financial centres, while others may remain in the uk. third, there are also inconsistencies in capital taxation. this is not only a problem of tax rates : tax bases are also different across countries, and there is enormous diversity and complexity in terms of legal requirements and forms, as in the case of withholding taxes. in addition, the so - called debt bias due to the favourable tax treatment of debt relative to equity distorts incentives in favour of the former. the limited development of equity markets and sizeable home bias in portfolios have significant consequences for the appropriate functioning of the monetary union. indeed, they set a limit to the capacity of risk - sharing mechanisms in the euro area, compared for instance to the united states. conceptually, risk - sharing is closely linked to the capacity of emu to withstand shocks. it can be seen as the ability of countries to diversify the impact of idiosyncratic shocks among other member states

tharman shanmugaratnam : enterprise innovation - improving lives in singapore and technological speech by mr tharman shanmugaratnam, chairman of the monetary authority of singapore, at the fintech awards, singapore, 17 november 2016. * * * mr wee ee cheong, chairman, abs and ceo, uob distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 1 thank you for joining us here at our inaugural fintech awards prize presentation ceremony. 2 let me begin by thanking the participating teams, as well as the international cast of judges who helped evaluate the entries, for their time and inspiring work. 3 this evening, we are honouring winners from two competitions organised as part of the inaugural singapore fintech festival : the global fintech hackcelerator and the fintech awards. the global fintech hackcelerator attracted a total of 655 submissions from more than 50 countries. they produced solutions to address some of the 100 problem statements that the financial sector had put out. the fintech awards recognises innovative fintech solutions that have actually been implemented by financial sector players and technology companies. we received 210 entries, running the gamut from cyber security to payments. 4 we celebrate the winning entries this evening. but equally, we are celebrating the spirit of innovation that each of the participants in these competitions demonstrated. they represent the passion to make things better, to create value for firms in a way that gives customers value, and ultimately, to find innovative ways to improve everyday life. that is the fintech spirit. 5 these last four days of the fintech festival, there has been much discussion about technology, regulation, infrastructure, markets, funding. 6 tonight, i would like to speak briefly on the critical people factor – not just for success in fintech but more broadly in the innovation - driven economy of tomorrow : people having that spirit of enterprise and a willingness to be different ; and people developing deep skills, skills relevant to the market, and a keenness to learn continuously. 7 that ’ s at the heart of what it takes for us to sustain and grow the fintech movement – the entrepreneurial desire to find new ways, even disruptive ways, and the deep skills and continuous learning that we need to power innovation. enterprise and innovation 8 we are already seeing successes, and we want to provide a fertile ground for more new ideas and solutions to keep cropping up. mas has a regulatory sandbox framework to make it easier for fintech start - ups to test their business