in exerting market discipline on service providers to drive greater efficiency, competition and innovation in the market place. in the design of a consumer protection framework, it needs to be recognised that financial products and services differ significantly from most other goods and services. specifically there is asymmetry in the access to information and bargaining power between the consumers and financial service providers. these imbalances can be addressed by three mutually reinforcing strategies. firstly, promoting stronger transparency and disclosure standards in financial institutions ; secondly strengthening the mechanisms for consumer protection ; and thirdly enhancing consumer education. an increasing number of countries have undertaken this more comprehensive approach in order to give greater focus to consumer protection issues for ensuring the soundness of financial service providers and ultimately to the stability of the financial system. this will also in turn promote more effective consumer participation in the economy, thus contributing more significantly to the economic growth and development process. the approach and mechanisms adopted to protect consumers in individual jurisdictions will vary from one country to another, given the unique characteristics prevailing in the different respective economies and financial systems. consideration of country - specific circumstances and contextualisation is important to evolve relevant and effective consumer protection and education infrastructures. individual countries need to customise the consumer protection and education framework to their environment, taking into account factors such as the stage of economic and regulatory development, the structure of the financial system and the level of consumer sophistication. prudential safety and soundness, competition and consumer protection need to co - exist to effectively serve the various stakeholders'interests. hence, implementing an effective consumer protection and education framework involves achieving an appropriate balance between providing adequate safety for consumers while promoting competition and financial innovation. in formulating policies to safeguard consumers'interests, adequate consideration needs to be given to ensure the appropriate level of consumer regulation without imposing excessive regulatory costs and burden on both financial institutions and consumers, and thus avoid compromising the benefits that the policies are designed to achieve. in this process, ethics and integrity cannot be legislated. regulators, therefore, need to consider other approaches in preventing market abuses or misconduct and in promoting consumer confidence. of importance is to evolve an appropriate incentive structure for financial institutions so that they recognise that it is in their best interests to foster fair and equitable business practices as part of good governance, corporate social responsibility and brand building. good business practices need to be instilled and embedded in all aspects of the operations and at all levels within the institutions. on consumer education, it is recognised

and ensuring that consumers'interests are safeguarded. specific measures include upgrading the funds transfer systems, migrating all magnetic stripe for atm card and credit card infrastructure to a chipenabled environment, and introducing payment platforms that leverages on the internet to promote users'confidence and safeguard consumers'interests. malaysia is the first country in the asia pacific region that has mandated the migration of atm cards to chip based cards and has also been the first to complete the implementation of a national migration to emv chip based credit cards. this is essentially to combat fraud in payment instruments. a number of other initiatives have also been put in place to create greater awareness among the public regarding counterfeit banknotes and to promote increased consumer understanding on credit card usage and protection. as we advance forward, changes in the financial landscape will continue to be dynamic and the level of complexity and sophistication in the financial markets will further intensify. while considerable efforts have been undertaken to empower consumers through financial education and enhance protection for consumers, much remains to be done in fostering the commitment of financial service providers to sound business practices and promoting fair and equitable treatment of consumers. given the global dimension of financial services and the increasing interdependence of financial markets, efforts by individual countries to strengthen consumer protection need to be matched by efforts to enhance safeguards at the international level. forums like this one provide a good opportunity for regulators to share information and insights, to discuss the issues and challenges at hand, explore potential areas for cooperation and lay the groundwork for future partnerships. drawing on the experience and expertise of various countries, this forum provide a platform for participants to work together towards developing global best practice standards on consumer protection and education issues. i look forward to the outcome of your deliberations in fostering greater consumer protection and education.