Instead, robust cross-border cooperative oversight arrangements are essential to ensure that they take fully into account the implications across jurisdictions and currencies in their on-going risk management, as well as in crisis situations, and that effective cross-border arrangements for the recovery or potential resolution of central counterparties in a crisis situation can be put in place. We should not wait for a potential emergency to remind us of the urgency of this problem. It would be too late to address it then, as the cross-border upheaval in the banking sector in the context of the 2008–09 financial crises amply demonstrated. And the consequences in the case of central counterparties would be even more devastating than what we have seen in the banking sector. Cross-border application inconsistencies Finally, let me briefly mention another area of concern: the cross-border application of different rules. I leave entirely aside the question of whether or not we are finished with the  BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  standard setting. There are areas where additional work would be beneficial: think of collateral transformation and settlement cycles, and of the success of Target2-Securities in fostering harmonisation around T+2 settlement in Europe. But this would require another conference and I will focus here on the application of existing rules. It is clear to all of us that due to the global nature of the OTC derivatives markets, international coordination is absolutely indispensable to avoid inconsistencies, gaps or overlaps, or conflicting rules.
Mr. Carse reports on the initiatives taken concerning financial industries in Fujian, Hong Kong and Taiwan Speech by the Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Mr. David Carse, at the Symposium on the Financial Exchange and Cooperation of Fujian, Hong Kong and Taiwan, held on 8/8/98. I am pleased to be here this morning to welcome you to this Symposium. The Chinese Banks’ Association is to be congratulated for organizing this important initiative with the co-sponsorship of the Fujian Provincial Government and Chinatrust Commercial Bank. The idea of the Symposium, as I understand it, is to facilitate the exchange of ideas concerning the financial industries in the three regions and the exploration of cooperative opportunities between them. 2. Such an initiative could not have come at a better time. The current financial crisis is creating havoc among the Asia economies. Initially, the damage was felt in the financial sector. But the full impact is now being seen in the real economy as output and trade are crippled by higher interest rates, the burden of foreign currency borrowing and the credit crunch. The Mainland of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have survived the crisis in better shape than most other economies in the region. But they have not been unaffected as events of this week have demonstrated in Hong Kong where we have witnessed further speculative pressure on the Hong Kong dollar. 3.