Fostering ‘co-opetition’ will therefore continue to be a key policy thrust of the Bank. In the near term, the Bank will be issuing a framework on interoperable mobile payments to foster ‘co-opetition’ in the mobile payment landscape. The framework will promote open and fair access to shared payment infrastructures for both banks and eligible non-bank entities. 2/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  This will be supported by interoperability standards and proportionate risk management controls that aim to encourage competition while facilitating collaboration at the infrastructure level. Banks and operators of shared payment infrastructures such as MyClear and MEPS are encouraged to publish open Application Programming Interfaces (or APIs) to drive continuous innovation in value-added payment services by both banks and non-bank fintech players. Merger of MyClear and MEPS to strengthen industry alignment and spearhead the transformation of the payment landscape Today, I am also pleased to announce an agreement has been reached between Bank Negara Malaysia and the industry to merge MyClear and MEPS which operate Malaysia’s shared payment infrastructures for wholesale and retail payment transactions. The merged entity will be called ‘Payments Network Malaysia’, or ‘PayNet’ in short. PayNet will be jointly owned by Bank Negara Malaysia and the financial services industry. It will embark on modernising our payment infrastructure. It will assume a key role in ensuring that Malaysia’s payment systems are future-proofed and always at the cutting edge of payment efficiency, innovation and competition.

The vigorous economic momentum in the emerging economies is likely to provide positive stimulus for global growth in the future. BIS Review 173/2010  1  The SNB has made slight downward revisions to its growth forecasts for the global economy, mainly for Europe in 2011 and 2012. Uncertainty with regard to global economic developments remains very considerable and the risks are still to the downside. Swiss economic outlook  Growth of the Swiss economy remained robust in the third quarter. Consequently, utilisation of production factors increased. Technical capacity utilisation has returned to a normal level in manufacturing, while in the construction industry it is in fact considerably higher than the long-term average. Employment also increased moderately and unemployment declined further. However, the indications of a significant slowdown in growth increased. Goods exports stagnated from June to October, mainly due to weaker demand from Europe. Exports of services declined most recently. Inflation, as measured by the national consumer price index, fell to 0.2% in November. The decrease over recent months is mainly attributable to the fall in the prices of imported consumer goods. Accordingly, the core inflation indices calculated by the SNB were somewhat higher, and have remained steady since the last monetary policy assessment. For the coming months, the SNB expects economic growth to continue. However, it is likely to be significantly lower in the quarters ahead – a development attributable to both the generally subdued economic activity in the industrialised countries and the appreciation of the Swiss franc.