Benoît Cœuré: The international dimension of the European Central Bank’s asset purchase programme - an update Speech by Mr Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, at a conference on "Exiting Unconventional Monetary Policies", organised by the Euro 50 Group, the CF40 forum and CIGI, Paris, 26 October 2018. * * * It was more than 30 years ago, in October 1987, when the spread between the yield on ten-year US Treasuries and their German equivalents last reached current levels. Such stark divergences in monetary policy cycles are often followed by abrupt reversals in cross-border capital flows. Purchases of US securities by private non-residents, for instance, accelerated strongly in 1988 and 1989. Much of the inflow went into US Treasuries, partly due to attractive bond yield differentials. But when returns on German Bunds caught up with those of US Treasuries in 1990, the situation was turned on its head. In less than 12 months, private non-residents went from being net buyers of US securities to net sellers.1 In recent years, the United States has once again become a destination for large capital inflows. Between 2014 and 2017, purchases of US securities by non-residents roughly tripled. And in the first half of this year, private foreign investors were still important net buyers of US securities.
Currently, we have 21 remittance service providers offering digital remittance services, more than double the number 3 years ago. With the implementation electronic know-your-customer or e-KYC, consumers will be able to experience end-to-end digital remittance transactions. These are positive and exciting developments happening in our remittance market. Better public-private sector alliance to strengthen compliance Bank Negara Malaysia will continue to work closely with the industry to promote financial inclusion and this will be done primarily through the digitalization of remittance. Regulators also need to keep up with the times. We are taking a different approach this time – from ‘regulator instruct, industry do’ and ‘regulator knows best’, to creation of public-private sector alliance. It is vital to leverage on each other’s strengths and resources, not only to reap the benefits of technology, but also to overcome the emerging threats. We are all in this together. Greater harmonisation of regulatory framework on the remittance industry at the regional and 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  global levels is required to increase consistency in standards and reduce regulatory burdens on industry players. As a start, we have shared with other central banks on how we regulate the money services industry in Malaysia. This includes the transformation journey of MSB industry in Malaysia, our approach to innovation and technology, as well as monitoring of the whole industry. I believe that in the long term, harmonisation of rules will also foster innovation and spur regional expansion amongst industry players, while upholding the highest ethical and professional standards.