Even if the non-bank players do not need to directly engage with these issues, they must have high degree of awareness in order to work effectively with their partner financial institutions. Measures taken in Malaysia to develop a more inclusive financial sector Allow me to now share Malaysia's experience in addressing financial inclusion and branchless banking. In Malaysia financial inclusion has been a high priority in our national agenda for many decades. Since the establishment of the Central Bank, there has been a conscious policy to have an extensive commercial banking branch network across the country, to ensure the outreach, in particular, to cover the non-urban areas. Malaysia now has 10.2 branches for every 100,000 individuals as opposed to the global median of 8.4 branches for every 100,000 individuals. In Malaysia, more than 80% of the population also have some form of savings account. This has also contributed to the financialisation of savings in the country. Deposits as a percentage of gross domestic product is 180%. This means that savings is mobilised even from small savers into the formal financial system. This allows the savings to be channelled to productive economic activity. To further drive the provision of basic financial services to the underserved, the National Savings Bank in Malaysia has been mandated in 2006 to enhance the outreach of deposit services and micro-financing. Their efforts, together with those of commercial banking institutions and government mandated micro-financing agencies, have resulted in a significant expansion of micro-financing.

Zamani Abdul Ghani: Scaling up financial inclusion through branchless banking Remarks by Mr Zamani Abdul Ghani, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, at the Microfinance Policymakers Forum “Scaling up Financial Inclusion through Branchless Banking”, Kuala Lumpur, 2 December 2009. *  *  *  Introduction Good afternoon and welcome to Malaysia. It is very encouraging to see so many senior policymakers gathered here today to participate in this Microfinance Policymakers Forum. Thank you for taking the time to be here and for contributing your knowledge. The motivation for today's event has its roots in the forum of the United Nations Advisory Group for Inclusive Financial Sectors which was held in May this year in Kuala Lumpur. As many of you may be aware, in recognition of the importance of financial inclusion, the United Nations established the United Nations Advisory Group on Financial Inclusion in 2006. The group advises the United Nations and member states on issues relating to the advancement of the financial inclusion agenda on a global scale. Since its establishment, many successes have been achieved. These include increasing the public awareness on the importance of financial inclusion, assisting governments in the design of regulatory systems that facilitate the creation of financial services for the poor, encouraging the use of holistic measures to gauge the progress of financial inclusion as well as collecting and disseminating best practices to further advance financial inclusion. One of the topics that received considerable attention at the UNAG forum was branchless banking.