Within the industry, revenues and growth must be driven by strong value propositions to your customers and not by sheer aggressive recruitment and sales tactics. More fundamentally, an insurance company’s long-term success must be built upon a strong risk culture and good corporate governance. An emphasis on ethical behaviour must permeate dayto-day practices. Boards and Management should set the appropriate tone from the top, and demonstrate a collective determination to walk that talk. Recognition and reward systems should match the espoused values of the firm. Conclusion Let me conclude. The insurance sector will not be immune to the innovations and disruptions around us. At the World Economic Forum, present times have been described as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This will bring both opportunities and challenges. I have described some of these in my remarks. I know that all your firms are putting in place IT and business strategies to ride the technology wave including those aimed at up-skilling your people. In progressing, we must be reminded that insurance is a social good and not a mere financial or economic activity. Apart from the imperative for doing well, it is important for the industry to be guided by a moral compass pointing firmly to doing right and doing good. May I wish one and all a belated Happy New Year of the Dog.
Mr. Carse speaks on banking supervision in Hong Kong and the lessons learned from the financial crisis in Asia Speech by the Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Mr. David Carse, at the Asian Investment Conference “Asia: Meeting the Challenge” held in Hong Kong on 27/3/98. 1. I am pleased to be here this morning to speak to you on the topic of the supervisory lessons which Hong Kong can learn from the region and specifically from the crisis which has engulfed Asia since July of last year. This is a drama that is still being played out and we have not yet reached the final act. But I do not think that it is too early to make some kind of judgment about what went wrong and the lessons that can be drawn for the future. The Asian Crisis 2. I think that it is fair to say that the Asian crisis has surprised almost everyone by its speed and intensity and the ease with which it spread from country to country. Even those who were sceptical about the Asian miracle did not really expect anything like this. Of course, there were warning signs such as the current account deficits in a number of countries such as Thailand. But these could be regarded as the natural consequence of the heavy demand for investment in growing economies.