Essentially an Asian growth story:  8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  •  Rise of Asian middle class and growing affluence has generated demand for variety of financial services, including wealth management and insurance  •  Growth of Asian corporates has driven demand for offshore lending, foreign exchange trading, capital market activities, and risk management. 60. Some highlights in past year:  •  Assets under management (AUM) rose by 30% from $ trillion in 2013 to over $ trillion in 2014. •  Foreign exchange trading, measured by average daily turnover volume, increased by 40% from a year ago to reach $ billion in October 2014. •  Offshore non-life insurance, measured by gross written premiums, grew 8.8% yearon-year to $ billion in 2014. •  Corporate debt issuance grew 13% in 2014 as outstanding debt reached $ billion. Infrastructure financing space becoming more active. 61. Singapore already serves as important infra financing hub, with 60% of infra financing transactions in ASEAN led by project finance teams based in Singapore. •  MAS working closely with industry to develop toolkit for standardised public-private partnership contractual clauses. This will: o  o •  enhance bankability of infra projects; and facilitate subsequent capital market refinancing  Aim in coming years is to enhance infra financing ecosystem: o o  Work with MDBs to increase supply of bankable projects Facilitate greater institutional investor participation in infra assets. RMB market has taken off well. 62  Singapore currently second largest offshore RMB hub in world.
•  Individuals purchasing property are constrained on their total debt service ratio. 36. MAS announced new unsecured credit rules two years ago. •  FIs will not be allowed to grant further unsecured credit to borrower whose aggregate unsecured debt exceeds borrowing limit for 3 consecutive months. •  This limit has been set at 24 times borrower’s monthly income, and will be lowered to 18 times from 1 Jun 2017 and 12 times from 1 Jun 2019. 37. Vast majority of Singaporeans manage their debt well. •  Less than 2% of unsecured credit users affected by industry-wide borrowing limit. •  Nonetheless, this is about 22,000 borrowers who need help to manage down their debt. There are measures to help unsecured borrowers pay down their debts 38. Banks have worked with Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS) to develop a new Repayment Assistance Scheme (RAS). •  Convenient one-stop solution for borrower to work out centralised repayment solution with creditors. •  Lower interest rate of 5% p.a. over repayment period of 8 years for debt in excess of 12 times a borrower’s monthly income. Second consumer initiative: facilitate retail access to simple, low cost investment products 39. Last year I spoke about how MAS was working to improve savings and investment options for retail consumers. Made progress on three fronts. •  introduced Savings Bonds for flexible risk-free returns  •  facilitated access to $ corporate bonds for stable, long-term returns  •  expanded ETF options for diversified equity returns  40.