These include specific initiatives to strengthen the regulatory framework governing market practices by financial service providers as well as enhanced minimum disclosure requirements and standards for credit card issuers, and on fees and charges for financial products. At the same time, ongoing efforts to raise the level of professionalism have also been intensified. BIS Review 4/2005  1  In 2004, the Bank introduced measures relating to sales practices in the insurance industry. Life insurance agents are also required to adopt best advice practices in the sale of life insurance products. To facilitate comparisons by consumers through enhanced disclosures, the Bank introduced mandatory disclosures of commissions, fees and charges for insurance products with savings and investment features that are sold through banking institutions. To ensure equitable treatment of policyholders, the Bank further strengthened the regulations on claims settlement practices and enhanced the controls over bonus reductions by life insurers to ensure reasonable returns to participating policyholders. More recently, the industry, together with the Ministry of Transport, implemented the e-cover notes system, which will effectively eliminate forged motor insurance cover notes. This represents an important development towards protecting the interests of both vehicle owners as well as road accident victims. The Bank also expects to license financial advisers in 2005. Following the enactment of the relevant legislation, financial advisers will be licensed and regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia to provide professional advisory services on insurance to consumers in relation to their financial planning needs.

This development marks an important milestone in the ongoing evolution of the overall consumer protection framework for the industry. A number of initiatives have also been taken by the banking industry to maintain the integrity of the payments systems and instruments, focused at promoting user confidence and ensuring that consumers’ interests are safeguarded. In combating card fraud, significant investments have been made by the industry players to migrate all magnetic stripe ATM and credit card infrastructure to a chip-enabled environment. New payment channels and infrastructures that leveraged on the Internet have also been developed, aimed at increasing safety and efficiency in the financial system. Measures have also been introduced to enhance customer service levels at financial institutions. For this purpose, Bank Negara Malaysia has undertaken a nationwide survey to assess how well consumers are being serviced by the financial service providers. The findings of the survey were shared with the industry and individual institutions to serve as a basis for financial institutions to assess their own performance and to use the results to benchmark themselves against global best practices. The objective is to achieve world-class quality in financial services. Ladies and gentlemen, The provision of adequate avenues for redress is also important to enable consumers to resolve conflicts through an equitable process. Efforts have been made to strengthen redress mechanisms both at the institutional level as well as on an industry level.