I also announced last year that we have established a cross-border collateral arrangement with De Nederlandsche Bank. This year, we have established such arrangements with the Banque de France, Bundesbank and Bank of England. These arrangements will allow banks in Singapore to pledge Euro and Sterling cash and eligible government securities, custodised with these central banks, as collateral when they access the MAS Standing Facility. 22. These measures will help to broaden the availability and diversity of regulatory and liquid assets for banks and allow international banks greater flexibility to tap on their global  BIS Review 103/2010  3  sources of liquidity, while maintaining the high quality of eligible collateral of the Standing Facility. Maintaining the growth of Singapore’s financial services sector 23. Let me now turn to the performance of our financial sector. The sector has staged a strong rebound as global financial conditions improved. In the first quarter of this year, the financial sector grew by 3.5%, its fourth straight quarter of expansion. More recent data such as bank lending suggests that the financial sector continued to expand in Q2. Meanwhile, hiring in the financial sector has picked up from 4,000 in Q4 2009 to 5,500 in Q1 this year. The 5,500 financial sector jobs created accounted for 15% of total job creation in Q1 2010. 24. The recovery in the financial sector is broad based – banking intermediation, trading and asset management activities have all rebounded.
MAS will continue to be vigilant and take appropriate steps to maintain medium-term price stability and enhance the resilience of our financial system. In strengthening our regulatory and supervisory regimes, we will do this in a manner which is consistent with international standards and best practices, but at the same time, sensitive to our environment and needs. Riding on Asia’s growth, we will also continue to build on our strong fundamentals to provide for sustainable growth in the financial sector. 31. Thank you. BIS Review 103/2010  5