institutions that include four islamic banks and two development financial institutions on their collective effort to initiate this platform. i understand there is bis central bankers ’ speeches interest from other islamic banks to take part in this platform. this platform will have the potential to create a more extensive network of sponsoring banks to meet the more diversified demands of investors and ventures. this would further enhance the potential for the value proposition of the iap as a shariah compliant investment vehicle and a fund raising avenue that would bring benefits to the economy. on that note, it is my great pleasure to officially launch the iap. i wish it every success. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

is integrated into a chip card and combined with credit and debit card functions. the other route to success is to link the electronic purse function more specifically to a particular type of purchase which people have to make in their everyday lives. that has been demonstrated in hong kong by the success of the octopus card. as at end - september, 5. 6 million octopus cards have been issued, recording 3. 8 million transactions per day. at this level, octopus must be one of the largest stored value card systems in the world. as regards electronic delivery channels, five banks have already launched transactional websites in hong kong, and a further twelve have told us that they are at the planning and development stage. mobile phone banking is also very much a live issue. once y2k is out of the way, i think that we will see a spate of further activity in this area. this reflects the fact that banks are increasingly becoming aware of the need to supply the e - banking product while hong kong has a population very ready and willing to accept new technology. moreover, with 200, 000 km of fibre optic cabling, linked to more than 1, 500 buildings, hong kong has one of the finest telecommunications infrastructures in asia. the financial infrastructure is also one of the most advanced. on the legal front, the government has already introduced a draft bill into the legislative council to facilitate electronic commerce by granting legal recognition to digital signatures and by establishing a licensing system for certification authorities. hong kong post is establishing a public key infrastructure for hong kong and will launch its certificate authority service before the end of this year. the hkma welcomes and fully supports these initiatives. implications for banks the prospects for e - banking in hong kong are therefore favourable. however, there are also risks to be managed, and i shall be looking at these more closely. banks are of course already used to dealing with at least some of the issues that crop up in an electronic banking environment, and so have built up experience and expertise to deal with these. however, i do believe that the internet, because of its low cost, global reach and versatility raises the stakes for the banks – both in terms of the opportunities it presents as well as the risks. strategic risk in talking about these risks, let me start at the top – with the issue of strategic risk. in other words, will the bank get it right? will it make the right choices when it comes to investing in e - banking or will it waste money