While improving understanding is crucial, it also needs to be complemented with concrete actions that would improve the effectiveness of preventive and enforcement actions. For example, this could be done by incorporating and overlaying these insights into the transaction monitoring process and customer profiling. The implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations will allow more effective actions to be undertaken. Both aspects of compliance, that is, technical and effectiveness, are equally important. The philosophy behind the intended outcomes is the integrated manner in which countries should combat financial crimes. This would require cooperation from all parties involved and encompass the whole eco-system of combating financial crime: investigation, prosecution, conviction and confiscation. No stone should be left unturned. FATF in its 2015 evaluation, recognised Malaysia as having high technical compliance but called on Malaysia to ensure greater effectiveness in producing the desired outcomes of our system especially in the area of investigation, prosecution, and forfeiture of laundered properties. Understanding of new and emerging risks and having a comprehensive toolkit  2/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  My second point is the need to have a deep understanding of new and emerging risks and a comprehensive toolkit to effectively execute our shared responsibility to eradicate financial crime. All of you may have heard this many times, but it is worth restating that the rapid advancement in technology is a major running story for our age. While this presents wonderful opportunities for economic development, it also creates attendant risks and fresh set of challenges.

As such, it is important for the industry to be aware of the trade-offs that come with adoption of these technologies. In pushing the boundaries of innovation, the industry needs to understand the risks that they pose. One example is the rise of mobile banking, e-payments and virtual assets. In Malaysia, mobile banking transactions have multiplied greatly, from around 500 million transactions in 2016 to almost 1.3 trillion transactions in August this year. The ubiquity of mobile internet and increasing dependency on our smartphones is expected to increase the importance of this medium. This technology fosters financial inclusion and offers potential for greater customer engagement. One such potential is in meeting and strengthening know-your-customer requirements. By leveraging on technology, financial institutions will be able to conduct e-KYC with greater efficiency while making the customer experience more seamless. One such solution is being tested in the Bank’s FinTech sandbox. Another area of growth comes from virtual assets. Between the end of 2016 to date, market capitalisation of virtual assets have grown by an extraordinary rate of over 1000% from around USD 20 billion to around USD 200 billion. While the technologies behind virtual assets may present great potential to revolutionise the way we conduct finance, the risks associated with virtual assets is an area that deserves much scrutiny. Features that may allow anonymous or pseudonymous transactions and easier crossborder transfers of values carry money laundering and terrorism financing risks that need to be addressed.