While regional financial integration will further facilitate the already strong trade and investment linkages in the region, a more important aspect of the increased financial integration in Asia is the more efficient intermediation of funds in Asia. This includes the recycling of some part of the sizeable savings in Asia to productive investments in the region. The average savings rate in Asia is 35% of GDP and Asia as a group has a total of USD 4.8 trillion in foreign reserves. With greater liberalisation of the financial sector and the capital account, and the increased linkage of the national payments systems in Asia, there are increased financial flows within the region. This trend is reinforced by the increased presence of regional institutions in the individual domestic financial systems and Asia’s favourable economic prospects and more developed financial markets. This has already resulted in volatile capital flows to the Asian region. Going forward, papers issued out of Asia will also likely assume greater importance as an asset class. It will serve to facilitate the further diversification of risks and thus, contribute to stability of the international financial system. It will also expand the options for investors and borrowers and thus, contribute to more efficient allocation of financial resources across borders. Asia’s economic and financial integration, however, extends beyond its own region to the traditional markets in the developed economies, and more recently to other emerging economies in other parts of the world. Today, the economic and financial linkages between the emerging economies have also gained significance.
The Task Force members are drawn from the private sector from across advanced and emerging G20 economies, including major companies, large investors, global banks and insurers, all the major accounting firms and credit rating agencies. 2  As such, the Task Force represents a true cross-section of those who prepare, demand and use climate-related financial disclosures. Let me briefly recap the financial stability imperative to act on climate-related financial risks  From rising sea levels to more severe storms and more intense droughts, climate change is already presenting physical risks 1  The G20 had asked, in its April 2015 Communique, that the FSB “convene public- and private-sector participants to review how the financial sector can take account of climate-related issues”. 2 A full list of Task Force members can be found at: https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/about/# 2  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  2  Since the 1980s the number of registered weather-related loss events has tripled. Inflation-adjusted insurance losses from these events have increased fivefold since the 1980s to around $ over the past decade. 3  Insurers are therefore amongst those with the greatest commercial incentives to understand and tackle climate change in the short term. Their response here in London is at the cutting edge of the understanding and management of such risks. For example, Lloyd’s of London underwriters were the first to use storm records to mesh natural science with finance in order to analyse changing weather patterns.