•  Clients will get the opportunity to stress-test their systems, assess the responsiveness of existing coverage to losses, and gain an appreciation of potential losses and the need for cyber insurance cover. Promote Asian demand Next, we want to promote insurance demand in Asia. Asia is already leading the world in premium growth. We seek to catalyse the development of insurance demand in the region via a three-pronged approach. First, enhancing cross-border access to regional markets. The ASEAN economies are working together on a comprehensive insurance liberalisation framework. •  We aspire to achieve substantial liberalisation by 2020 for all insurance sub-sectors, namely life insurance, non-life insurance, reinsurance and retrocession, insurance intermediation, and insurance auxiliary services. •  Insurers can expect to benefit from easier cross-border provision of services and substantial access across the ASEAN customer base from offices in any ASEAN member country. •  The framework is expected to be discussed at the ASEAN Finance Ministers’ Meeting next year. Second, increasing the pool of Asian risk data. Modelling and loss simulation are key tools to help insurers manage and price their exposures. Accurate and timely data are critical for risk models to predict the impact of a loss event. For example, to predict the vulnerability of an insured risk to catastrophes, a wide variety of data is required, such as geographic location,  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  soil structures, rainfall, construction materials and urban density, just to name a few.
M R Pridiyathorn Devakula: Upon acceptance of the award for Central Banker of the Year - Asia 2006 Statement by Mr M R Pridiyathorn Devakula, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, at the Banker Magazine Luncheon Seminar, Bangkok, 1 February 2006. *  *  *  Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Back in June 2001, when I landed at the job of Governor of the Bank of Thailand, I was fairly confident that I would be able to do well in the area of bank supervision, given the considerable exposure I’ve had as a commercial banker. I also had some ideas on how to move forward the resolution of NPL and return banks to profitability. But I was a banker and not an economist by profession. My expertise in business administration made me a bit uneasy on matters concerning monetary policy, as I felt that I did not have enough macroeconomic background to master the monetary policy issues. However, I was really fortunate to have a highly competent Monetary Policy Committee as well as BOT staff to support me in this area. Indeed the depth of knowledge and the quality of analysis provided by BOT staff are materials which I can always rely on. All I have to do during the past 4½ years is to pay close attention to their presentation, data analysis and proposals.