The men of Eidsvoll needed a bank that could provide credit in Norway. Norges Bank quickly became an important lender. It was not until the latter half of the 1800s that a private banking system truly came into being. Norges Bank acquired its present-day role of the bankers’ bank and lender of last resort. With private banking came banking crises. The 1899 crash in Christiania triggered the first serious banking crisis in Norway. A real estate bubble in the capital burst and house prices  4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  plummeted. It took more than 100 years for real house prices in Oslo to return to their precrash level.4 Banks play a key role in the payments system and channel credit from savers to investors. If the flow of credit seizes up, problems will rapidly spread through the entire economy, as witnessed during the latest financial crisis. A robust banking system is of benefit to us all. Banks are now adapting to new capital requirements. On top of the new capital requirements is a countercyclical capital buffer. The countercyclical capital buffer will vary over time. It will be increased when financial imbalances build up. In the event of economic stress and large bank losses, banks will be able to draw down the buffer. Chart 7: Key policy rate and bank lending rates Even if the key policy rate is low, interest rates on loans to households and enterprises are not particularly low.
By 2050, it is estimated that climate change losses could cost Asia more than a quarter (25.6%) of 2019 GDP.2 4 Insurers are important partners in helping governments and businesses manage physical and transition risks. The FM Global Centre's testing and research on how properties can be impacted by fire, floods and natural hazards at varying levels of intensity, can provide valuable data insights. These data insights can support the development of ex-ante climate risk insurance solutions for businesses in the region. It goes to the heart of insurance solutions – which should increasingly focus on ex-ante risk reduction and loss prevention, beyond just ex-post risk financing. The Centre will also provide hands-on loss prevention education to businesses and individuals, through interactive simulation labs and learning areas. 1/3  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  5 The insurance industry can also play an important role in empowering the development of the green economy in Asia. Singapore, for instance, as part of our energy decarbonisation, aims to quadruple solar energy deployment by 2025. This shift towards renewable energy means that traditional insurance solutions for fossil fuel-based power generation need to adapt to meet the risk financing needs of renewables, or a hybrid energy mix of renewables and fossil-fuel based energy generation. We see more insurers in Singapore, including FM Global, offering insurance covers for solar, onshore wind power generation and batteries, protecting against the risk of fire, natural hazards, and machinery breakdown.