these guidelines is to engender public confidence in banking institutions and to ensure that the management and board of directors exhibit integrity and professionalism in the running of the banking institutions. banking institutions are prohibited from the extension of financing and credit facilities to related parties including its directors and staff as well as family members and interested corporations. such prohibitions are aimed at preventing misconduct and irregular practices in provision of finance whilst ensuring fair and equitable treatment to the public. these governance are universal in nature and therefore, islamic banking institutions would not be faced with any difficulty in adopting these values. secondly, the objective is to prevent conflict of interests and accord responsibility on the banking institutions to provide complete and accurate information. bank negara malaysia has undertaken a number of initiatives in promoting transparency and good banking practices in islamic banking institutions. to achieve these objectives, bank negara malaysia has adopted an all - encompassing approach which is focussed on strengthening the institutional capacity of the islamic banking institutions, broadening the range of financial products and services and deepening the islamic financial markets by intensifying research and development efforts as well as creating awareness in addition to strengthening the regulatory framework for islamic banking. one aspect that has been carried out by bank negara is the introduction of a structured framework in the determination of the rate of return for islamic banking operations. previously, there were various modes of framework in the disclosure of the rate of return used by the islamic banking institutions and it has, to a certain extent, made it difficult to assess the performance of the islamic banking industry. it also created distortions in the rate of return as the spreads can vary significantly among islamic banking institutions. the new framework addresses the issue of uniformity as banks are required to observe a single framework, thereby reducing the potential for distortions in the rate of return, and generating a more equitable distribution of income, as well as increasing the level of transparency. on the part of the regulator, it has provided us with better means of assessing the efficiency of islamic banking institutions as well as their profitability, prudent management and fairness. in a dual banking system as that operating in malaysia where conventional banks also provide islamic banking facilities, the regulator is accountable to instil confidence to the public of the existence of firewalls between the conventional and islamic funds. since the introduction of a dual banking system in malaysia and the inception of the islamic banking institutions participating in islamic banking scheme ( ibs banks ), bank negara malaysia has made it mandatory for the islamic banking

but also against the background of an unfavourable global environment. at the same time they have striven hard to narrow the gap in living standards between themselves and the euro area member countries. it is, therefore, important that in the examination that follows a country ’ s request for a convergence report due consideration be given to the policy consistency and credibility of the applicant country. a comprehensive economic analysis that is not only quantitative but also qualitative, and which recognizes the difficultly of simultaneously satisfying all the maastricht criteria in the current world environment would encourage emu candidate countries to persist in their efforts to achieve even closer nominal and real convergence. it would also provide further evidence that the euro project is credible, that it is both feasible and realizable in a near - term perspective. let me conclude by thanking you again for being here to contribute to a deeper understanding of the challenges ahead. i also wish you a pleasant stay in our country.