jessica chew cheng lian : generating new solutions for remittances in malaysia remarks by ms jessica chew cheng lian, deputy governor of the central bank of malaysia, at the launch of project greenback 2. 0 kota kinabalu, kota kinabalu, 4 march 2018. * * * it is my great pleasure to be here today for the launch of the greenback 2. 0 project in kota kinabalu. first of all, on behalf of bank negara malaysia, i would like to thank dewan bandaraya kota kinabalu for agreeing to host this project. we are sincerely honoured by the presence of yb datuk hajah jainab at today ’ s launch event. and of course, the world bank has been a truly committed and equal partner in this project with bank negara malaysia, and as we concluded our collaboration in johor bahru last year, we are excited to begin another chapter in this journey together with the world bank. kota kinabalu is malaysia ’ s second remittance champion city and only the third champion city for the greenback project in asia. through the project, our aim is to help more people living and working in sabah remit moneys whether for business or personal purposes, safely and at lower costs. to achieve this, we want to provide people in sabah with information, with access and with the confidence to use remittance services. and we want to encourage more competitive remittance services in sabah that will better serve the community. you may ask what is the significance of being a champion city? the selection of a champion city recognises the enormous potential of cities across malaysia, where three quarters of our population live, to be the engines of innovation. in our work at bank negara on a range of issues – whether it is to improve access to financing, promote financial inclusion or lift economic efficiency through migration to electronic payments – our collaboration with cities and their leaders has been the source of many solutions and breakthroughs in addressing the challenges that we face. this reflects the close and vibrant communities and networks within cities that can be drawn upon much more quickly and effectively to deliver solutions that will benefit the community. as a champion city for remittances, kota kinabalu will similarly be able to show the way in generating new solutions for remittances. there are many valuable lessons that we can take from our recent experience with the greenback project in johor bahru. but it will be important for

to complete the customer due diligence process. yet, nine in ten foreign workers have smartphones and use them to access the internet. with technology, we can tap into these alternative access channels to enable e - remittances. two other important development are also coming together to encourage the use of electronic remittances. the first is the initiative by the government to require employers of foreign workers to pay their salaries into bank accounts. this removes the need to deliver cash to remittance service providers. the second is the development of an interactive mobile application by the msb industry that allows users to identify licensed msb providers, compare services and communicate directly with msb companies. the mobile app serves as a powerful tool to further promote transparency and competition in the money services business industry, by providing consumers with the information and facilities that will help them make smarter remittance choices. kota kinabalu will be an important testbed for these initiatives, serving as a model for envisioning an end - to - end digital remittance landscape in malaysia. given sabah ’ s aspirations to develop a digital ecosystem, we could not have picked a better city or time to launch our next greenback journey. as we look forward to the journey ahead, i cannot help but recall how far the msb industry has come. in 2017, the msb industry facilitated rm20 billion in worker remittances and a further rm400 million in business remittances. this represents a 43 % and 300 % increase respectively over values transacted in 2013 when significant reforms were introduced to strengthen standards and shore up trust and confidence in the industry. today, an industry represented by progressive and credible principal msb companies and a wide network of agents has not only improved access to services, but also raised the quality of service. with better knowledge, tools and resources, the industry has also worked hard to strengthen safeguards against its use for criminal and other illicit activities. the industry is already leading the way in the financial sector by certifying all compliance officers to equip them to be more effective in implementing aml / cft measures. this is important because our collective efforts here today to improve overall welfare by providing more people and businesses with efficient access to remittance services will be severely set back if trust and confidence in the industry are eroded. when this happens, rules often have to be rewritten, the costs of compliance will increase, and the public is saddled with reduced 2