Speeches 07 Jun 2022  Opening remarks at the Alliance for Green Commercial Banks Cornerstone Members Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony Eddie Yue, Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary Authority Distinguished guests and friends, 1. Good afternoon. It is my great pleasure to join you to celebrate another milestone of the Alliance for Green Commercial Banks. Today we are going to witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding that brings in five Cornerstone Members to the Alliance, welcome the on-boarding of four Global Partners and a Knowledge Partner, and publish the Alliance’s first thought leadership paper. 2. My special thanks to the IFC advisory team and the HKMA market outreach team for their hard work and close collaboration that brings out the biggest common denominator among various stakeholders. I would also like to personally thank the Cornerstone Members and Partners for their strong support and contribution throughout the engagement process. What we have achieved today is the product of collective efforts. 3. We at the HKMA feel privileged to have partnered with the IFC in launching the Asia chapter of the Alliance for Green Commercial Banks. This is an important joint commitment and undertaking to support financial institutions in Asia on their journey to become leading green institutions 4. Indeed Asia has the largest need for climate finance among the geographical regions. It is estimated that 66 trillion USD of climate investment is required for the region in the coming three decades.
Rest assured that the ECB Governing Council is fully committed to rein in inflation, and to ensure that it returns towards 2% by end 2024 or end 2025. II. Paris' momentum as financial centre Amidst this geopolitical and economic uncertainty, and despite the recent turmoil in the United States and in Switzerland, financial stability has been preserved in Europe. EU banks are robust, with substantial capital and liquidity buffers: they are in their overwhelming majority subject to stringent Basel requirements – which makes a big difference with the many mid-sized US banks. We have in the euro area no "Sorgenkind" or "problem child", such as Crédit Suisse; and since 2014 we have had a single and strong supervisor thanks to Banking Union. As President of the French prudential authority (the ACPR), I can in particular attest to how solid and diversified French banks are nowadays. Four of them are categorised as global systemically important banks (G-SIBS), and they act as catalysts for Paris as a financial centre. Indeed, Paris stands out as unique in the network of European financial centres: it is the only one to offer such a wide range of financial activities, from global asset management to insurance and banking, and it has further reinforced its position since Brexit.