“Low probability, high-impact events are a fact of life … humanity reveals instead a preference to ignore them until forced to react – even when foresight’s price-tag is small” – The Economist.

The banking failure events in 2023 has highlighted the critical importance of ongoing crisis preparedness by authorities and the financial industry. Coming into 2024, a similar crisis event – even though not a financial one, the Japan Airlines incident with good ending of safe and swift evacuation of its passengers and cabin crew is a reminder of the need to be prepared at all times. While many praised the expertise of the pilots and cabin crews who handled the situation competently, the other two (2) components that are equally important for the orderly exit to safety are the modern safety design features enhanced from past incidents and understanding of the collective roles by the passengers during a crisis.

This, in a nutshell, is what collaborative resolvability is all about – building capabilities and removing barriers – to ensure that financial institutions are more resolution-ready, and our financial system are more robust in dealing with failures of financial institutions. This requires us to work collaboratively on how to make things better during a crisis, which would also offer opportunity for financial institutions to unlock their value in the path to resolvability and transform resolution planning into a strategic asset for their business-as-usual business management.

This September, PIDM is proud to host its 2nd National Resolution Symposium (NRS), as we commemorate the anniversary of PIDM’s establishment and reflect on the lessons learnt from the 2008 global financial crisis as well as the spring 2023 banking crisis. In line with the NRS theme this year, we will delve into in-depth discussions on making our financial institutions more resolvable and resilient amidst challenges ahead. Like in the Japan Airlines incident, all stakeholders share collective roles and responsibilities. Together with the expert speakers, we will explore potential meaningful application of the resolution planning journey, and turn policies into effective practices – to make the Malaysian financial system more resilient and sustainable for all.

I hope to see you at the NRS 2024!