to close this natural catastrophe protection gap. let me outline four key enablers : technology and data ; product innovation ; research and development ; and an integrated asean market. technology and data first, technology and data. through the use of sensors, satellites, and iot devices, more data is being captured about the causes and impact of natural catastrophes. big data analytics enables better quantification and pricing of risks, and helps strengthen ex - ante risk resilience measures. take for example remote sensing. satellites are being used to monitor rice growth patterns and anticipated yields in vietnam, philippines, india, thailand and cambodia. this builds up a knowledge profile of the area, and enables underwriting and pricing of risks. insurers and governments are also able to detect droughts and floods, and their potential impact on harvests early, enabling a quicker response. and in the event of a disaster, the before and after images allow insurers to perform loss assessment and support quicker release of claims to the affected farmers. no need to send loss surveyors to inspect damages in - person, which can be costly and time consuming. big data analytics is at the core of singapore ’ s own natural catastrophe data analytics exchange ( nat cat dax ). nat cat dax is led by icrm, in partnership with mas and the industry. it will aggregate a variety of data sources including economic loss and exposure data as well as drone and satellite data to create a comprehensive database of asia pacific natural catastrophe risk. the consortium has commenced industry data collection efforts in taiwan and jakarta, and is also using satellite imagery to extract information on building features. i understand a more detailed update of its preliminary findings will be shared later in this conference. product innovation second, product innovation. we are seeing new forms of insurance products and solutions, such as index - based and parametric insurance. unlike traditional insurance which indemnifies actual losses, parametric insurance solutions make pay - outs based on catastrophe events hitting certain pre - defined parameters such as hurricane wind speed or earthquake magnitude. this removes the need for loss adjusters to survey the extent of losses. insurers enjoy cost savings and policyholders get faster pay - outs asia risk transfer solutions, or arts, is a local start - up co - founded by ntu graduate alex chen and professor haresh shah, that has done this well. it has developed a risk analytics platform for the design, pricing and management of index based insurance products. arts ’ flagship crop platform in

an economic efficiency issue. there is a redistribution problem. but i don ’ t agree that the solution is more deficit and more debt. redistribution is a political discussion. so you don ’ t agree, but we are all thinking about the arm wrestling over the italian budget, between a government that has just been elected and taken power, and the european commission. the commission actually embodied the denial of universal suffrage. do you appreciate the difference there? yes, i do. but the mechanism has worked ; in fact, it ’ s worked well. the european commission expressed its point of view, based on european rules. then there was a discussion, a negotiation between pierre moscovici and the italian finance minister, and an agreement was reached on a revised budget that was debated and voted on by the italian parliament. it cannot be said that the commission was holding a knife to their throat or pointing a gun at their head. really? if anyone was holding a gun to their head, it was the financial markets, not the commission. italian interest rates were rising, which meant the debt burden was increasing, which was bad for the italian people. that wasn ’ t europe ’ s doing ; it was simply a reflection that, ultimately, you have to be able to finance yourself. nevertheless, it was in the name of these maastricht rules that in 2011 – 2012 austerity was imposed on europe and the growth that had begun to take hold dropped off again... yes, that may have been excessive. it ’ s all about finding the right balance. i don ’ t disagree with you on this. but i don ’ t think it ’ s good for a country like france to permanently run a deficit of over 3 %, simply because you have to be prepared for the next economic downturn. today we are seeing growth – not enough – but there is some growth. if we don ’ t reduce the deficit now, we won ’ t be ready when there are real economic difficulties, and it will be even more painful the next time. before taking questions from listeners, mr cœure, a question to you as a banker : the stock markets, in particular the us stock market, have been falling for two weeks. should we be worrying about a major financial crisis in the coming months? there are many uncertainties around the global economy that are not primarily financial in nature, but first and foremost linked to trade and to the tensions surrounding trade, especially between the united states and