I am happy to see so many of our colleagues from the region participating in this important conference, which aims to promote dialogue and discussion among the region’s financial regulators and the industry. Thank you to Mrs. Jane Diplock and to all of you for being here.
This year’s conference is taking place against a backdrop of fresh challenges being posed by a number of global factors and their interplay with regional developments. The US subprime crisis and the ensuing credit crunch, as well as the Societe Generale incident compel us to proceed with caution, despite the boom all around us here in the region.