I wouldn’t want to meet the eyes of the European citizens and tell them that we knew this could happen, but we were too busy to do anything about it. Some different avenues have been outlined in the ongoing international discussion. So far, the focus for discussions in the EU has primarily been on crisis prevention in the form of regulatory reform and different organisational structures of supervision. However, similar options do exist both in the context of crisis management and in the subsequent resolution of the crisis. One of the solutions suggested is to let the home country take a leading position more firmly. In this case, the home country supervisor is responsible for the supervision of the overall group and in a crisis the home country authorities has the responsibility for managing and solving the crisis for the bank as a whole. With increasing emphasis on consolidated supervision, this seems to be where Europe is heading presently. It addresses the problem primarily from the cross-border bank’s perspective of minimising the regulatory burden. This is, of course, valuable but does not solve all problems. With the new Capital Requirements Directive, the consolidating supervisor of a banking group will have, for example, the principal responsibility for validating and approving the credit risk models in the entire bank, including its subsidiaries. But in most cases, the rules to be used are expected to be settled in negotiations between the supervisors.
From its inception, Malaysia’s and its founding members’ vision have always been for a strong and integrated ASEAN region. The “ASEAN Way” believes there is strength in diversity and no country should be left behind. ASEAN strongly believes in the concept of shared prosperity, where wealth creation within the region will be enjoyed by all. The spirit of cooperation and flexibility are amongst the principles which underpinned the success of Myanmar’s chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014. Under Myanmar’s leadership, we saw major strides in financial integration that culminated in the conclusion of the ASEAN Banking Integration Framework (ABIF) by the ASEAN Central Bank Governors. A framework of gargantuan achievement. Myanmar’s leadership in seeing this through was crucial and now ABIF represents the single most important agreement in strengthening the ASEAN banking system, driving deeper integration and enhancing the region’s growth potential. It is an agreement of momentous significance. I would also like to congratulate Myanmar for successfully advancing the Yangon Outcomes for Financial Inclusion during their tenure as Chair in 2014. The groundwork that Myanmar laid during their Chairmanship was key to the announcement by the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in March 2015 that financial inclusion will be elevated to be an important policy priority for ASEAN. This has resulted in the establishment of a dedicated working committee in ASEAN to deliberate policy options, engage stakeholders and coordinate collective actions to advance financial inclusion. Malaysia also places a big priority on financial inclusion.