Il Sole 24 Ore: We are at the very heart of democracy: no taxation without representation. Trichet: I repeat: peer surveillance on government and parliament as regards fiscal policy is a bold political endeavour. I do believe that by going back with great determination to the letter and the spirit of the Stability and Growth Pact we will make a jump in terms of governance of the 16 members of the euro area, and that jump is overdue. Moreover, the 2020 Agenda is also extremely important to reinforce economic governance in the EU as a whole, at the level of the 27. Il Sole 24 Ore: A last word: are you optimistic that EMU will survive the current crisis? Trichet: Absolutely. Sometimes, we don’t realize how much Europe has achieved in the last half a century. The founding fathers could not even imagine the creation of a Parliament elected by universal polling, of a European Court of Justice determining jurisprudence for Europe as a whole, of a fully integrated single market and of a single currency, today for 330 million fellow citizens and 16 countries. Europe has also proved in the past two years that it was able to cope with the worst global crisis since World War I. This has been in particular true for the central banks, the ECB as well as the National Central Banks, in Italy Banca d’Italia.
The scale of the floods and the knock-on effects of natural catastrophes on global supply chains came as a rude surprise. The floods damaged more than 7000 industrial and manufacturing plants in 40 separate provinces. This affected countries with significant manufacturing capabilities in Thailand, most notably Japan. The majority of the insurance losses therefore came not from property damage, but from business interruption claims arising from the disruption to manufacturing and supply chains. It is therefore important that insurers have senior experts in the region who understand Asia’s multi-faceted and inter-connected risks. This will enable the industry to better price and underwrite regional risks, and achieve sustained growth. MAS will seek to increase the depth of expertise in Singapore by continuing to work with existing players to build up their specialty and reinsurance underwriting and broking capabilities as well as expand their regional hubs. MAS will also seek to increase breadth in the industry by promoting growth in emerging business lines, such as cyber risks. Lack of data is a key hurdle for cyber insurance in Asia. MAS is working with industry to create a test-bed for cyber risks where insurers and potential clients can come together to simulate loss events. •  Cyber insurers will be able to generate sets of valuable loss data and raise awareness about the value of specialty cyber insurance cover.