total aggregate outstanding loans have grown by 12. 0 % to rm727. 0 billion during 2008 and by 11 % yoy as at end - march 2009. dealing with financial risks – from regulatory perspective on the regulatory front, bank negara malaysia has and is now in the process of conducting another series of stress tests to gauge, from a capital standpoint, the collective soundness of the banking sector in absorbing potential losses. complementing this is the liquidity stress tests conducted to assess specifically the capability to withstand market wide liquidity shocks. this reflects the heightened state of vigilance in bank negara malaysia as we continue to direct significant effort and resources towards strengthening our surveillance. in addition to macro surveillance, the supervision framework is also more forward looking including increased engagements and dialogue with senior management of financial institution, industry leaders, trade bodies and various chambers of commerce for the early detection of emerging issues and developments. facilitating access to credit and easing monetary policy another area of importance is the continuing availability of credit from the banking sector. we have earlier highlighted the rate of growth in outstanding loans. in addition, the government has introduced specific guarantee schemes while bank negara malaysia also, on its part, maintained a monetary policy easing stance that is conducive to achieve the same goal of facilitating access to credit at reasonable cost. at the same time, to assist the household sector, the agensi kaunselling dan pengurusan kredit ( akpk ) is also an avenue for individual borrowers and potential borrowers to seek advice and assistance in managing their finances and debts. clients of the banking industry may also contact bank negara malaysia hotlines and its link and telelink for assistance for info. link refers to laman informasi nasihat dan khidmat. association of banks in malaysia ( abm ) has also introduced toll free lines for the benefit of its stakeholders. these combined efforts seek to lower borrowing costs and ease cash flows while at the same time promote financial discipline. more importantly, it is to avert a sharp slowdown in economic activities. financial liberalisation bank negara malaysia has also remained committed to the objectives of the financial sector master plan ( fsmp ) issued in 2001. the recently announced liberalization measures, for example, forms part of the concluding phase of the fsmp which is to liberalise the banking sector by allowing for the increase in operational flexibilities, product offering and, the issuance of new licenses

creating better synergies between business and risk functions. while more firms are acknowledging the importance of reputational, human capital and environmental risks, actions however have generally not measured up. many companies still have weak succession plans in place and remain vulnerable to key - man risks. few companies have robust risk management frameworks that incorporate measures of how their products and services affect the well - being of consumers or if consumers are being treated fairly, as long as legal exposures are contained. and efforts to adopt triple bottom line approaches to reporting firm performance are only beginning to gain traction. within asia, fewer than 10 banking institutions today subscribe to the equator principles for assessing and managing the environmental and social risks for projects. clearly the gap between the existing risk management practices and a whole - of - business approach which fully embraces broader aspects of risks remains large. regulation and greater shareholder activism will remain important drivers of change, and in my view, so will a new breed of risk managers who effectively integrate traditional and emerging risk perspectives, and who can speak to these perspectives in a compelling and cohesive way to an organisation ’ s key stakeholders. a third observation that i want to make today relates to the increasing importance of viewing risks over a longer - term horizon, and imagining the unthinkable. i mention these together for a reason. when one is focused on looking both backward and forward over a reasonably long horizon, the universe of what is unthinkable becomes smaller and our vision is less likely to be blinkered by limited experiences of only the most recent past. we are also likely to become more open to broader possibilities of new and emerging risks on the horizon. in the world of creative arts, it is often said that we are limited only by our imagination. i think the same can be said of risk management. if we can stretch our imaginations a little further, then there is a higher chance that risk management will be more proactive in anticipating future problems, especially problems that we may have never encountered before. this requires risk managers to go beyond estimating the probability of risk events occurring, and allowing a greater role for uncertainties, no matter how remote, to feature more prominently in risk management approaches. while easier said than done, innovations like reverse stress testing and the increasing degree of internal and external collaboration that goes into bis central bankers ’ speeches constructing stress testing scenarios are positive indications of how firms are responding to this challenge. on this score at least, risk management is increasingly proving to be more