spearheading the sustainability agenda. digitalisation can further this cause, helping islamic finance unleash its full potential in striving towards fully embracing and adopting vbi to contribute meaningfully towards an inclusive, sustainable and impactful growth. there are two main outcomes for which digitalisation can be deployed to create winning strategies for islamic finance. firstly, technological advances can reduce operational costs therefore allowing islamic financial service providers to reach the underserved and the unbanked with more affordable digital financial services. high mobile penetration and internet usage, the shift towards e - commerce and increased usage of e - payments are all important trends that hold great promise to bring financial inclusion in malaysia to the next level. coupled with new technological advances such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence ( ai ) and data analytics, financial services providers are now able to better assess creditworthiness using real time and alternative data, thereby overcoming the traditional obstacle of making sound credit decisions for customers who lack collateral and credit history. in the same vein, the deployment of telematics, internet of things ( iot ), affordable usage - based insurance ( ubi ) and other value added services open up scope for the takaful industry to create efficiencies whilst addressing customer demand, further closing the protection gap of the malaysian population. a well - designed digital takaful solution that not only offers affordability but also seamless customer experience can go a long way towards elevating consumer trust and changing perceptions about the value of takaful protection, particularly among low income groups. secondly, technological advances present opportunities for islamic financial services providers to further automate their business to bring about greater efficiency and transparency as well as manage risk effectively in delivering value - driven and impact - focused products and services that can realise the aspiration of maqasid shariah. this is particularly important for products and services with multiple applications of shariah contracts as well as those instruments such as risk sharing, waqaf and sadaqah, which demand not only a high degree of transparency and disclosure but also positive customer service and engagement to engender trust and confidence. there is scope for the industry to explore the potential of new technologies that can transform risk management and compliance, remove information asymmetry and integrate the value chain of financial intermediation seamlessly with the real economy, particularly in trade and the halal industry. ultimately, realising the full benefits of digitalisation to deliver the intrinsic values of islamic finance successfully, relies on

heart of their strategy, and 31 % are already purchasing the services of fintech companies. many are also partnering with fintech companies. for bank negara malaysia, we have also embraced the fintech agenda, setting up our internal fintech working group in 2016, launching our fintech sandbox not long after that and finally, organising our very own industry conference – the myfintech week in 2019. to be future ready, we are highly committed to support the digital transformation of the financial sector. earlier this year, we issued the e - kyc policy document to enable digital on - boarding of customers to occur anytime and anywhere. this is expected to be a catalyst in the provision of end - to - end financial services, particularly in a ‘ low touch ’ environment. the financial industry is taking steps to ensure safe and secure introduction of e - kyc, with several banks planning to launch e - kyc solutions in the coming months with more to follow in 2021. we are also currently in the final stages of developing the licensing framework for digital banking, which we envision can enhance access to affordable and quality financial solutions, particularly for the underserved and hard - to - reach market segments. from our sandbox experience, we also observe similar digital alternatives and solutions being developed in the insurance and takaful sector. our shift towards e - payments has also been sustained, with a 47 % increase in the volume of transactions made through internet and mobile banking, and a 260 % increase in active e - wallet users between august 2019 and 2020. furthermore, good progress has been made in enabling the interoperability of e - wallet services offered by banks and non - bank e - money issuers. looking ahead, bank negara malaysia 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches will continue to focus on fostering well - designed regulations to facilitate digitalisation and innovation in financial services. all these efforts are intended to support the financial services industry accelerate its transition to an age of digitalisation and innovation. we have high hopes for islamic finance to capitalise on this. in 2017, we launched the value - based intermediation ( vbi ) initiative. vbi encapsulates the industry ’ s vision to be more impact driven, reinforcing the overarching intent of shariah to promote good and prevent harm on the people and planet, which closely aligns with the global shift towards sustainable finance and esg. through the vbi initiative, islamic financial institutions have also been