aware that we have been trying to leverage the fruits of banking reform with a complementary effort to develop the domestic capital market. clearly, given the dominant role of the banking system in our financial system, our banks will need to play a major role. here the challenge is the willingness to reform market practices to achieve greater transparency, efficiency, and investor protection. we need our banks and other major market players to be willing to sacrifice the acceptable but mediocre status quo for something that is better for the economy in the long run. even now our commitment and resolve is being tested as we endeavor to stamp out long - standing market malpractices. rating agencies have criticized us on some practices that we are now trying to correct. these practices have also prevented us from developing a deeper capital market. the complexity of the financial reform agenda has required the financial regulators to cooperate more closely. last year, we took an important step in this direction. in partnership with the sec, the insurance commission, and pdic, we formed the financial sector forum ( fsf ) last july. the fsf has steadily gained momentum and we are now working on a full agenda to harmonize our supervisory and regulatory efforts, to strengthen information exchange and to promote better consumer protection. we expect the fsf to hit its full stride this year. even as we have strived to forge an efficient and modern financial system, the access of the poor to the financial system has been our constant special priority. and indeed, the success of microfinance has been a pride and joy of the bsp. by the way, we are observing this year the international year of microcredit under the leadership of the united nations. we look forward to further strengthening our commitment to sustainable microfinance. in less than six months, there will be a changing of the guard at bsp as the majority of the monetary board and i complete our full six year term. the famous manila bay sunset beckons. but we are not yet quite ready to follow its inviting siren call. the challenge of upholding financial stability is a never ending one. rest assured that we will pursue the necessary reforms to the very last day we are in office before we gladly yield the drivers seat to our successors. let me end by thanking the bap and its enlightened leadership for working with us to implement many essential but often times painful reforms. a happy new year to all!

zeti akhtar aziz : strengthening linkages in the islamic financial markets speech by dr zeti akhtar aziz, governor of the central bank of malaysia, at the seminar on derivatives in islamic finance, “ strengthening linkages in the islamic financial markets ”, kuala lumpur, 24 june 2005. * * * distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, " islamic finance in malaysia today has become increasingly more entrenched and integrated both on the domestic and international fronts. the successful integration has contributed to its rapid growth in assets and created a more robust and resilient islamic financial system. the challenge now is to further strengthen the linkages in the respective components of the islamic financial system, in particular, the islamic financial markets. " it is my pleasure to welcome you to this seminar on derivatives in islamic finance jointly organised by bank negara malaysia and the financial market association of malaysia. during this recent two days, we have organized the investors conference, the seminar on the 10 - year masterplan on islamic finance and the dialogue among shariah scholars which have gathered an extensive participation, from policy makers, investors, industry players and shariah scholars. today's event is another important initiative which brings together financial experts to deliberate on a vital aspect in the development of islamic finance. ladies and gentlemen, the successful development of a robust and resilient islamic financial system depends on the ability to integrate the various components of the islamic financial system that includes the islamic banking industry, takaful and the money and capital markets. of equal importance is also to integrate the domestic islamic financial system with the international financial system. for more than two decades, we have witnessed the success of the development of each of these respective components that has contributed to the rapid expansion in malaysia's islamic financial services industry. indeed, we have seen the development of a comprehensive islamic financial system. this has placed the malaysian islamic financial system at the forefront of the global islamic financial system. notwithstanding this, there have been imbalances in the pace of the growth of the components of the financial system. while islamic banking, being the core component, has recorded significant progress, more efforts need to be directed to promote the growth of takaful and the financial markets. my remarks today will focus on measures to accelerate the growth of the islamic financial markets by strengthening its required linkages. of most importance is the development of a wider range of islamic financial instruments, developing the relevant indicators to support benchmarking and an efficient pricing mechanism as