from customers of all other banks. likewise, customers only need to maintain an account with one bank in order to make bill payments to the entire network of merchants registered with jompay. the jompay model thus reduces duplication and facilitates the pooling of resources from the entire banking industry. this in turn will enable us to build a wider and more efficient network for online bill payments. businesses should leverage on jompay to accept online bill payments from their customers. handling cash and cheques is very costly. businesses incur an estimated rm2. 7 billion 6 annually for cash handling, in addition to bearing the risk of pilferage and theft. businesses also incur an estimated rm113 million 7 annually for cheque handling. migrating to electronic internet banking, mobile banking and atm. bnm ’ s financial stability and payment systems report 2014. calculated based on the average monthly transactions of b - pay ( australia ) and the population in australia. based on the european central bank ’ s ( ecb ) study “ the social and private costs of retail payment instruments ” on 13 european countries, the social cost incurred by retailers for cash handling amounts to 0. 269 % of gdp. based on the ecb study, the social cost incurred by businesses for cheque handling amounts to 0. 012 % of gdp. bis central bankers ’ speeches bill payments would lower the cost of transactions and provide businesses with a faster, more secure and more efficient means of collecting payments. businesses should leverage on jompay not only for bill payments, but also for invoice payments to facilitate a more efficient management of their receivables. consumers, on the other hand, should also take advantage of the increased convenience of making bill payments via this new channel. jompay provides a one - stop centre for consumers to make bill payments electronically anytime, anywhere and without any transaction fee. by migrating to electronic bill payments, a lot of time and effort previously incurred by travelling and queuing to make over - the - counter payments can be saved and redirected to more productive use. importance of industry collaborative efforts now i will touch on the third and last point. the payments industry in malaysia has a history of collaboration in industry - wide infrastructure developments. a notable example is the migration from magnetic stripe to chip - based cards. the migration exercise, which was completed in 2005, successfully eradicated cases of counterfeit fraud and contributed to greater confidence in the use of payment cards in malaysia. as

10 %, compared to only 3 % in 2013. at the same time, the number of ibg transactions increased by 36 % in 2014 compared to 19 % in 2013. consequently, malaysia ’ s cheque usage had fallen from 6. 6 per capita in 2013 to 5. 8 per capita in 2014. this is indeed an encouraging development. australia, the united kingdom, sweden and norway. norway, sweden, denmark and finland. bis central bankers ’ speeches to reduce the country ’ s reliance on cash usage, the bank has issued the payment card reform framework ( framework ) which took effect in stages beginning 2 january 2015. the framework aims to ensure that the cost of accepting payment cards is fair and reasonable, whilst creating an enabling environment for the wider acceptance of payment cards, especially by smaller merchants. over the next six years till 2020, together with the banking industry we plan to expand the payment card acceptance network from about 240, 000 terminals to 800, 000 terminals and further accelerate the use of debit cards. these measures, if implemented successfully, will lessen the need for cash payments. while this target seems ambitious, we can achieve this milestone with collective efforts by all. cash and cheques are still the main modes for bill payments in malaysia whilst efforts are being made to facilitate the wider acceptance of payment cards, bill payments in malaysia are still predominantly made with either cash or cheques. in malaysia, bill payments made via electronic channels 3 are still relatively low at 2. 4 transactions per capita 4 in 2014 compared to more than 10 transactions per capita 5 in countries with successful electronic bill payment platforms such as australia. malaysia has an online bill payments model where merchants need to maintain multiple banking relationships in order to receive bill payments from customers who bank with different banks. merchants, especially smes, find it difficult and costly to maintain multiple banking relationships. as a result, only about 1, 000 merchants are currently registered to accept online bill payments via the individual banks ’ proprietary bill payments system. therefore, there is still tremendous potential for greater efficiency and cost savings through the consolidation and expansion of the online bill payments market in malaysia. enhancing the efficiency, accessibility and convenience of online bill payment via jompay jompay addresses the limitations of the current bank - centric model by establishing an open electronic bill payments platform which leverages on the combined infrastructure and network of the entire banking industry. with jompay, merchants only need to maintain a banking relationship with one bank, in order to receive bill payments