10 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, FOMC transcript and presentation materials, January 29-30,  2002. 11 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, FOMC transcript and presentation materials, June 24-25,  2003. 12 See, for example, Lars E. O. Svensson, The Zero Bound in an Open Economy: A Foolproof Way of Escaping  from a Liquidity Trap, Monetary and Economic Studies, Volume 19, Issue S1, pp. 277-312, February 2001; Günter Coenen, Athanasios Orphanides, and Volker Wieland; , Price Stability and Monetary Policy Effectiveness When Nominal Interest Rates Are Bounded at Zero, Advances in Macroeconomics, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2004; Ben S. Bernanke and Vincent R. Reinhart. 2004. Conducting Monetary Policy at Very Low Short-Term Interest Rates, American Economic Review, Volume 94, No. 2, pp. 85-90, May 2004; Klaus Adam and Roberto M. Billi, Optimal Monetary Policy under Commitment with a Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Volume 38, No. 7, pp. 1877-1905, October 2006. 13 Reifschneider and Williams 2000; Board of Governors 2002. 14 Gauti B. Eggertsson and Michael Woodford, The Zero Bound on Interest Rates and Optimal Monetary Policy,  Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Volume 34, No. 1, pp. 139-211, 2003; Reifschneider and Williams 2000. 15 Ben S. Bernanke, Vincent R. Reinhart, and Brian P. Sack, Monetary Policy Alternatives at the Zero Bound: An  Empirical Assessment, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, The Brookings Institution, Volume 35, No. 2, pp. 1–100, 2004.
•  Individuals purchasing property are constrained on their total debt service ratio. 36. MAS announced new unsecured credit rules two years ago. •  FIs will not be allowed to grant further unsecured credit to borrower whose aggregate unsecured debt exceeds borrowing limit for 3 consecutive months. •  This limit has been set at 24 times borrower’s monthly income, and will be lowered to 18 times from 1 Jun 2017 and 12 times from 1 Jun 2019. 37. Vast majority of Singaporeans manage their debt well. •  Less than 2% of unsecured credit users affected by industry-wide borrowing limit. •  Nonetheless, this is about 22,000 borrowers who need help to manage down their debt. There are measures to help unsecured borrowers pay down their debts 38. Banks have worked with Credit Counselling Singapore (CCS) to develop a new Repayment Assistance Scheme (RAS). •  Convenient one-stop solution for borrower to work out centralised repayment solution with creditors. •  Lower interest rate of 5% p.a. over repayment period of 8 years for debt in excess of 12 times a borrower’s monthly income. Second consumer initiative: facilitate retail access to simple, low cost investment products 39. Last year I spoke about how MAS was working to improve savings and investment options for retail consumers. Made progress on three fronts. •  introduced Savings Bonds for flexible risk-free returns  •  facilitated access to $ corporate bonds for stable, long-term returns  •  expanded ETF options for diversified equity returns  40.