ago, its benefits have been widely acknowledged. the glut of liquidity in core economies has been partly reabsorbed, as deposits and savings have returned to the periphery. interest rates in germany have increased and they have fallen in the periphery. target balances, a powerful summary indicator of fragmentation, have come down by one quarter from their peak last year. funding costs in the countries under stress have fallen substantially. both banks and firms in stressed countries have been able to regain access to market financing, both for funding and raising capital. our initiative has therefore been beneficial to all : banks, companies and households – and it has benefited both periphery and core countries. let me highlight a few features of omt that are essential to bear in mind. first, omt comes with strict and effective conditionality attached to a programme with the european stability mechanism ( esm ). the initiative is activated only if a country submits to policy conditionality that leads to policy reforms. governments are not presented with a choice between reforms or omt. omt comes only with reforms. and reforms need a disciplined process of monitoring and international surveillance for the country concerned. otherwise, there is no omt activation. second, conditionality enhances the independence and the effectiveness of our monetary policy. the reason is that conditionality is a necessary but not sufficient condition to activate omt. we would only act if the right conditions for effective use of this monetary policy instrument were in place. third, the ecb would not act to compress spreads artificially ; on the contrary, we believe that spreads should naturally reflect the underlying fiscal position of the sovereign and the economic prospects of the country. this is also why we emphasised that a sovereign needs to have market access to qualify for omt. fourth, omt does not entail a transfer of risks from periphery to core countries via the ecb ’ s balance sheet, over and beyond risks that are inevitable and inherent in the implementation of a single monetary policy for 17 sovereign states. the omt announcement has lowered risks for core countries : the risks of a euro area breakup ; the risks arising from target balances in such a scenario ; and the risks from market interest rates distorted by safe - haven flows. bis central bankers ’ speeches because of omt, the euro area is a more stable and resilient place to invest in than it was a year ago. indeed, i would say that omt is even more essential now as we see potential changes

an epayment incentive fund framework ( epif ). under the framework, insurance companies shall set aside rm3 for every cheque issued and rm1 for every cheque collected to be used as incentives to encourage their customers, agents, service providers and government agencies to migrate to e - payments. the current practice where agents collect premiums from customers in cash and make payment to insurance and takaful companies using the agencies ’ own cheques or credit cards should stop. the industry should promote greater prudence and transparency in the collection of customer premiums by facilitating customers to make direct payments to the insurance and takaful companies. to this end, the industry equipping agents with mobile point - of - sale ( mpos ) or mobile apps to collect payment directly from customers should be the norm. thirdly, the industry needs to collaborate and invest in key market infrastructure and arrangements. these should support at least four key objectives, to enhance access to insurance ; increase efficiencies in claims processing ; promote fair competition and provide additional choice for consumers as well as provide a strong mechanism to prevent frauds and 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches cheats. this is important not only to deliver a superior customer experience, but also to control leakages, manage costs and ensure sustainability over a long term. it will also position the industry to compete and position itself more effectively as we move forward as the disruptive forces of competition, including from non - traditional players, continue to gain traction. it will also prevent leakages arising from abuses, misrepresentation and fraudulent claims. in the immediate term, the industry needs to set its sights on creating a convenient and seamless first - loss - notification process that leverages on shared infrastructure. such a process should eliminate intermediate processes that are currently adding costs and enabling abuse and fraud to take place. certain infrastructure should not be considered as a competitive edge. we have raised this issue many times. sharing infrastructure and information among industry players is very important, but efforts towards this have been quite disappointing. the establishment of the ism fraud intelligence system marks a significant first step in this direction. deploying the latest data analytics and network analyses, the fraud intelligence system is a milestone in the industry ’ s efforts to combat fraud, especially in the motor business. this is a long overdue development and i note that the first phase has successfully gone live in september 2017 with four pilot insurers. its success and benefits will very much depend on achieving