Even though I was a commercial banker for over 20 years of my career and fully share and understand the challenges facing this profession, I would not be able to witness the recovery and resilience of our banking system today if not for your remarkable efforts and hard work. Let me conclude by thanking the management of the “Banker” magazine for honoring me with this award and all of my colleagues at the BOT for their untiring support. The award is a great encouragement for me to continue dedicating myself to the cause of my work. Finally, let me leave you with a quote that has always been close to my heart. These were the words of one of my mentor, Dr. Puey Ungphakorn, one of the finest Governors we’ve ever had, who once said that: “If one is not concern about holding on to one’s position, then one can always make the right decisions.” So you can rest assured that I will continue to do what is right and in the best interest of our country. BIS Review 10/2006  1
Ravi Menon: The work of the NGFS in four emerging issues in climate change Opening remarks by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Chairman, Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), at the NGFS Workshop, Singapore, 26 April 2023. *** Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted to welcome you to the inaugural NGFS Workshop in Singapore. We held our annual NGFS Plenary meeting yesterday. We discussed how the NGFS can continue to push the envelope in greening the financial system: to strengthen the resilience of the financial system to climate and environmental risks and; to encourage financing flows to support the transition to a net-zero world. The NGFS is well-placed to do this – we are a coalition of 125 central banks and financial regulators from over 90 jurisdictions. Our size enables us to make an impact globally and our diversity enables us to harness multiple perspectives. The work we do is not only important but urgent. Climate change is already happening – its physical manifestations are becoming increasingly evident – especially here in Asia. We are already seeing unprecedented heat waves, floods, and agricultural degradation. One of the key roles of the NGFS is to build capacity and capabilities among central banks and supervisors to deal with the climate challenge. This inaugural NGFS Workshop, with more than 150 participants from over 60 institutions, will discuss cuttingedge economic and financial issues related to climate change and nature loss.