an unfinished agenda. in many countries, both developing and developed, informal remittances systems remain prevalent. there are legitimate reasons why such systems exist in some countries, for example countries that do not have fully developed formal financial systems. at the same time, legitimate concerns exist over risks associated with such systems, especially in an environment where money laundering and terrorist financing concerns have heightened. opportunities to increase the development impact of remittances have also focused attention on remittances that are now flowing through informal channels. in balancing these considerations, efforts are being made to bring these informal systems closer to formal financial systems – especially by increasing transparency – but without altering their inherent advantages. we don ’ t always get the balance right. de - risking by banks has been a clear case of market failure in which left to their own devices, different parties acted in their own legitimate interests – 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches but with adverse social and economic consequences, including for communities and countries that depend on remittance to raise resources for development. we are seeing positive moves to redress this. in particular, it is critical that continued priority be given to providing clear guidance on risk - based approaches for implementing aml / cft measures, improving the quality of supervision of remittance providers, and achieving more consistency in supervision across borders. confronting the changing nature of competition the nature of competition has also changed profoundly. competition used to be more predictable. you knew who your closest competitors were. and you probably also understood enough about their comparative advantages and constraints to be able to compete effectively. this is no longer the case. competition has become much more unpredictable, and can come from unlikely sources with the advent of peer - to - peer currency exchange platforms, e - commerce and blockchain solutions created by fintech companies. it is also not just about who your competitors are, or even what they offer. whyconsumers prefer your competitors has also become an important factor. it matters to more consumers today whether companies are conducting business with integrity and ethically. ultimately, consumers will almost always prefer to deal with companies that they trust. however, what customers look for to identify with companies that they can trust is changing. advertising campaigns of some of the largest companies that are households names today, centre on universal values of charity towards our fellow mankind, honesty, and respect for one another. these are some of the clearest signs of businesses that understand the shifting preference of a fast growing, new generation of

. in the area of central bank cooperation, the pbc has actively participated in all our regional groupings including that for the asean economies. for malaysia, this cooperation has manifested itself in many ways. the one event that i will always vividly remember is the one on 21st july 2005 at 7 o ’ clock in the evening when both china and malaysia transitioned to a flexible exchange rate regime. for malaysia, we had seven years earlier fixed our exchange rate during the height of the asian financial crisis. our transition into the flexible regime with china allowed for us to achieve it without being destabilised by the financial markets. bank negara malaysia also became one of the first asian central bank to be accorded the qfii status in 2009 as we took steps to diversify our reserves into chinese and other asian denominated papers. while china in the current environment is being confronted with challenges as it addresses its areas of vulnerabilities and as it takes steps to rebalance and reform its economy and financial system, it is these very actions that will provide the ground for a more sustainable china that will in turn become a source of stability for the region and for the global economy. looking ahead, there is much to be done by all of us. i have said that the business of central banking is an unfinished business. in view of the highly dynamic environment, there will always be new challenges on the horizon. for asia, it is the future challenges that we now need to be concerned with. and it is what we do now that will prepare the ground for us for the future. there has been too much focus on the present. in asia, while we have successfully prepared ourselves for the current environment, we now need to prepare ourselves for the future. among the future challenges that are likely to confront asia is whether our prevailing growth model is sustainable given the consequences from erosion of our demographic advantage, the rising indebtedness, the rising cost of living in an apparent period of low inflation, the need to meet the massive infrastructure requirements and the need to address the rising income disparities and the environmental challenges. what then are the ways economic management can prepare us for the future? this will involve policies and reforms that will reduce leverage that will address the widening income disparities, that will effectively manage infrastructure development and urbanisation, that will accord environmental sustainability and finally that will accord importance to governance, accountability and integrity in the implementation and execution of the many endeavours to achieve a sustainable advancement