4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  If such tools had been made available at an early stage, it may have been possible to slow down the dramatic expansion of credit that proved to have such devastating consequences. The IMF can play an important role in the work with macroprudential policy Macroprudential policy has come increasingly to the fore in the effort to find ways of preventing crises in the future. Macroprudential policy entails preventive work aimed at analysing and counteracting risks in the financial system. This includes the development of methods and forms of cooperation to discover and assess potential threats to stability in the financial system. I believe that the surveillance- and analytical capacity of the IMF means that the organisation can play an active role in this context by systematically collecting, analysing and providing information on the lessons learned in different countries and regions. I also believe that the IMF can support the exchange of information between authorities on the development of methods and models in the field of systemic risks. The range of possible tools and the division of responsibility between authorities and countries are now being discussed intensively within the framework of macroprudential policy. The tool that is attracting most attention at the moment consists of the countercyclical capital buffers that form part of the new Basel regulations. This means that the banks will be forced to hold more capital in periods when a credit boom risks triggering problems in the financial system.
Prasarn Trairatvorakul: Thai economy – tapping the untapped opportunity Speech by Dr Prasarn Trairatvorakul, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the inauguration of the RMB Clearing Bank in Thailand and 5th year celebration of the ICBC (Thai), Bangkok, 22 April 2015. *  *  *  1. Your Excellency Ambassador Ning Fukui, Chairman Jiang, Chairman Hu, Dr. Zhigang Li, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the invitation to give a few remarks on the occasion of the inauguration of ICBC (Thai) as the official Renminbi clearing bank here in Thailand. 2. This development of the RMB Clearing Bank in Thailand and certainly also to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of ICBC (Thai) is in fact the result of the long and continued ties between China and Thailand. It has marked another important step in further development of our financial ties following the signing of the Renminbi – Thai Baht Bilateral Swap Agreement and the Memorandum of Understanding with the People’s Bank of China on the establishment of the Renminbi Clearing Arrangements in December 2014. 3. Today, I was invited to talk about Thai economy. So I am pleased to have the opportunity to share with you some of my observations on the current state of the Thai economy. Let me humbly start from some of the challenges we are facing, the economy is currently reeling from both internal and external headwinds. Internally, the stagnant technology and labour readiness has so far taken a toll on Thailand’s economic expansion.