more affordable financial and protection solutions, will be instrumental to serve those who are currently financially underserved or excluded. the integration of social finance into islamic financial services encourages wealth distribution among society to achieve greater balance between wealth creation and wealth sharing. ultimately, fintech in malaysia should be harnessed to offer inclusive, sustainable and relevant financial products and services to serve the needs of all. the responsibility to manage the attendant risks this however means that we need to be cognisant of the potential risks associated with technology. this will be especially important as fintech and bigtech firms become more prominent in the financial system. such firms could pose system - wide vulnerabilities that can amplify shocks to the financial system and cause financial and economic instability. increasing reliance and concentration on third party service providers, including those located offshore, to support critical functions, could also increase operational vulnerabilities in more unpredictable ways the demands of society for speed, convenience and cost efficiency are at a point where substantial tensions already exist between pressures on financial institutions to accelerate the adoption of technology, and our capacity to manage those risks effectively. these tensions will only increase going forward. managing these tensions at an optimal level will be critical. it will call for changes to how financial institutions internally oversee and manage technology risks, both within and across their business activities, invest in hard and soft infrastructure and having much deeper collaboration across institutions and agencies. socially responsible finance will also require institutions to carefully consider how technological innovations may create new forms of financial exclusion or raise difficult ethical questions. clear guidance on acceptable conduct by staff and relevant parties will be needed. this in turn, will require financial institutions to reflect on their core values and risk appetite. in short, managing technology risks is not just an operational matter. it is a strategic one with high stakes for individual institutions, as well as the industry and the economy more broadly. our response should be commensurate with these stakes. beyond measures taken at an institutional level, there is a pressing need for the financial industry, and indeed even the nation, to provide an enabling and secure framework for technological innovation ; and educate and empower the public to take advantage of innovations. for example, the need to formulate a cohesive, coherent and comprehensive national strategy on cyber security is an urgent need. we can only play our intended role to support the broader economy if we are attentive to both strategic and operational considerations of risk. developing a safe, sound and vibrant financial system through innovation and

its tila authority, the board last summer began a top - to - bottom evaluation of mortgage - related disclosures with a series of four open hearings around the country, in which we heard public concerns about various mortgage - related issues, including predatory lending and the effectiveness of the currently required disclosures. using consumer testing, we will be working to improve the disclosures associated with mortgage lending and to fight deceptive marketing practices. this effort will draw heavily on our nearly - completed review of disclosures relating to open - end credit, including credit cards, for which we made extensive use of consumer testing to determine which disclosure formats are most effective and informative. 7 for home refinance loans, the board can prohibit practices that it finds to be associated with abusive practices or not in the best interest of the borrower. the results of the review of disclosures for open - end credit and the associated notice of proposed rule - making will be discussed at an open meeting of the board of governors on may 23, 2007. of course, the information provided by even the best - designed disclosures can be useful only when it is well understood. accordingly, the federal reserve produces and regularly updates a range of materials, including a booklet that lenders are required to provide to potential arm borrowers, to help consumers understand arms and other alternative mortgages ; and we will continue to promote financial education through a variety of partnerships with outside organizations. federal reserve banks around the country will also continue their cooperation with educational and community organizations that provide counseling about mortgage products and the responsibilities of homeownership. we are also actively reviewing the possible use of our rule - making authority to prohibit certain specific practices. in 2001, the board acted under its hoepa authority to ban several practices for high - cost loans that were determined to be unfair or deceptive, such as loan flipping – frequent and repeated refinancing to generate fees for lenders. the board will consider whether other lending practices meet the legal definition of unfair and deceptive and thus should be prohibited under hoepa. any new rules that we issue should be sharply drawn, however. as lenders are subject not only to regulatory enforcement action but possibly also to private lawsuits for redress of hoepa violations, insufficiently clear rules could create legal and regulatory uncertainty and have the unintended effect of substantially reducing legitimate subprime lending. next month, we will conduct a public hearing to consider how we might further use our hoepa authority