The two largest banks, which account for half of the domestic banking sector, had prospective capital needs of close to EUR 8 billion – or 44% of GDP. This is what the independent due diligence exercise revealed in February 2013. If the sovereign had shouldered these massive recapitalisation needs, debt would have risen to 145% of GDP. This would have critically endangered public debt sustainability. At the same time, traditional ways of burden sharing by the private sector bank creditors were limited, given little junior debt outstanding in banks. All this made the situation in Cyprus highly challenging and exceptional. One needs to bear in mind the starting conditions when assessing the design of the EU/IMF programme, to which I will now turn. Key elements of the EU/IMF programme  Three key objectives guided the negotiations of the MoU: first, to reduce the risks posed by the financial sector; second, to preserve debt sustainability; and third, to restore the conditions for sustainable and balanced growth. Combining these three objectives has proved to be a challenge, to say the least. Not only did the programme have to strike the right balance between short-term financial stability concerns and long-term debt sustainability considerations. It also had to be framed within a political context which requires unanimous decisions in the Eurogroup and ESM decision making bodies. Due to these exceptional economic and political circumstances, programme negotiations dragged on for too long, and the situation of the banking sector became critical. This forced the ECB to act.
The focus has gradually shifted from strengthening intermediaries in the domestic Islamic financial industry to fortifying the regulatory, supervisory, Shariah and liquidity framework necessary for such a robust financial system. This has involved greater international cooperation and collaboration in this new environment. A further development has been the evolution of the domestic Islamic financial markets into international markets. This has manifested itself in the form of foreign participation in raising funds and in investment activities in these markets, thus generating increased cross border financial flows. This has drawn participation from both emerging and the developed world in Islamic and non-Islamic countries. Going forward, the Islamic financial system is envisaged to have an increasing important role in connecting the world economies – through the strengthening of financial linkages, it will in turn facilitate increased international trade and investment activities. This internationalisation of Islamic finance will require the intensification of international collective efforts to establish the international Islamic financial architecture, and the development of mechanisms for more effective cross-border liquidity management. Central to achieving this next thrust of development is to develop a high caliber and competent talent base to cultivate financial innovation. Therein lies the investment needed in human capital development to support the industry. While Malaysia’s own experience and aspirations is to evolve into an international Islamic financial centre, we also continue to promote a more inclusive financial system to support a more balanced growth. On the international front, the aim is to enhance our international connectivity and thus establish greater economic linkages with other economies.