They will provide clear pathways on how a practitioner can undergo accredited programmes to progress him or her from the first licensing examination through to foundational skills and subsequently, advanced-level specialist training. IBF consulted the industry actively in the last year to ensure that the IBF Standards meet the demands of finance professionals of tomorrow. For instance, in risk management, the Standards will now encourage individuals to acquire deeper knowledge of the underlying businesses and their risk triggers. In compliance, individuals will learn to take on advocacy roles, so as to inculcate a stronger compliance culture within the organisation. In Technology and Operations, practitioners will be given core skills in project management and changemanagement to better facilitate process re-engineering within their organisations. Following last year’s launch of foundation programmes for Compliance, Corporate Banking and Wealth Management, IBF will be adding two new foundation programmes this year, in IT & Operations as well as Risk Management. This will enhance the opportunities for graduates or individuals with no prior experience in these areas to be able to land in and excel in such roles. In addition, IBF will launch a new integrated e-learning system over the coming year, which will help individuals use the revised Standards to undertake self-directed training and map out their professional development milestones. (V)  Leadership  Let me go on to the fifth capability that I mentioned earlier, which is leadership in finance. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  We want to develop Singaporeans for positions of leadership in tomorrow’s financial world.
However, this type of forecast has a relatively good accuracy in the short term (up to one year ahead). 6 The forecast produced by the now-casting is then entered into the large DSGE model and forms a basis for the model’s longer-term forecasts. The international forecast for all quarters is then also made outside of Ramses and entered as input into the model. As all models are simplifications of reality, however, the final analysis must always contain elements of assessment that correct the results from the model. In addition, some markets, for instance, the financial markets, are not entirely reflected in these models. 7 The latter play an important role in the current stage, which is affected substantially by the financial turbulence. General equilibrium models are an important analysis tool as they provide a consistent picture of the economy. They can therefore also be used for policy analysis and to analyse alternative scenarios. 4  F. E. Kydland and E. C. Prescott “Time to build and aggregate fluctuations”, Econometrica 50, 1982, 13451370. 5  O. J. Blanchard, “The state of macro”, NBER working paper series, August 2008. 6  See M. K. Andersson and M. Löf. Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review 2007:1. 7  C. E. Tovar. “DSGE models and central banks”. BIS Working Papers No 258. 2008. 2  BIS Review 121/2008  Some facts about economic cycles According to economic theory, fluctuations in growth thus arise as a result of various external shocks affecting the economy.