Following the Asian financial crisis, efforts have focused on five main areas, namely, to enhance the effectiveness of regional economic and financial surveillance, to improve the arrangements for regional crisis management that is reinforced by regional support mechanisms, to develop the regional financial infrastructure including the bond market and the payments and settlement system, to strengthen regional financial stability, and finally, to pursue capacity  BIS Review 74/2010  3  building collaboratively, so as to enhance the effectiveness of the Central Banks in the region. The priority for Asia going forward is to accelerate regional financial integration. To ensure this takes place in an environment of regional stability, strengthening cooperation is also aimed at managing the risks and vulnerabilities of the region. In 2006, the East Asian Central Banks have established a monetary and financial stability committee as a forum to discuss the risks to regional macroeconomic and financial stability. In addition, the ASEAN+3, a subset of this group, has already taken concrete steps to multilateralise the Chiang Mai Initiative into a more advanced and robust framework for the effective pooling and utilisation of liquidity support in the region. While the Asian region is highly diverse, in these key areas of cooperation and collaboration, the Asian region has demonstrated its cohesiveness in coming together to deal with the challenges that the new environment presents to us. Conclusion Let me now conclude. The world has changed and will continue to change.

Several taskforces have been established, involving users and service providers to promote the sharing of information and cooperation amongst the players, to develop industry-wide best practices and security standards, and to collaborate with relevant agencies to promptly deal with security infringement issues. Bank Negara Malaysia is also currently undertaking a series of measures to increase the efficiency and reduce risks in the payment systems, and facilitate a progressive transformation and migration of the payment systems infrastructure. In this regard, a cross-border link between the Ringgit and the USD settlement systems in Hong Kong, that is the RENTAS and USD CHATS in Hong Kong, will be established to reduce foreign exchange settlement risk via a simultaneous payment versus payment mechanism between Ringgit and USD in the same time zone. A cheque truncation system is also being developed to improve operational efficiencies through the elimination of the physical movement of cheques with the use of electronic images and data. Bank Negara Malaysia also aims to provide a conducive regulatory framework that is supportive of market-based innovation and ensuring transparency for the benefit of consumers. In this regard, I certainly hope that the results of your deliberations in this Payment Systems Forum and Exhibition 2005 will provide valuable input for the formulation of strategies and modalities for both the industry and authorities to accelerate the migration to e-payments in Malaysia. It is also hoped that the exhibition will heighten public awareness of the various payments products and services available in Malaysia, as well as globally.