zeti akhtar aziz : benchmark market indices - milestones in financial market progress speech by dr zeti akhtar aziz, governor of the central bank of malaysia, at the launch of citigroup malaysian government bond index & dow jones - rhb islamic malaysia index, “ benchmark market indices - milestones in financial market progress ”, kuala lumpur, 23 june 2005. * * * yang berbahagia dato'sri sulaiman abdul rahman taib, executive chairman, rhb capital, dr. zaha rina zahari, chief executive officer, rhb securities, mr. piyush gupta, country officer and chief executive of citibank berhad, distinguished guests, members of the media and ladies and gentlemen, " the use of benchmark market indices emerged on the financial scene as early as in the 1880's. in 1884, charles dow, journalist and founder of dow jones & company produced the first dow jones index, published in the company's'customer afternoon letter'which was later to become the wall street journal. of what we know, charles dow had always been a keen market observer. the haphazard idiosyncratic price movements of shares of individual or group of companies indeed did not lend itself to a coherent assessment of the performance of the market nor enable any meaningful analysis of market direction and investors'inclinations. this gave rise to the need for an index that reflects the broad market performance and investors'interest. this first market index was simple. prices of 11 stocks, the most actively traded on the new york stock exchange, were averaged. charles dow himself chose these stocks, nine of them being railroad companies, the key growth industry at the time. over time, he would revise the index as he saw appropriate to be reflective of ongoing market and industry developments. ladies and gentlemen, the construction and use of benchmark market indices today has undergone much advancement since then. indeed, financial markets have undergone dramatic transformation. economic, industry, and corporate expansion ; the sophistication, proliferation and diversity of instruments ; the expanding investment communities are all factors that have led to an increase in the number of benchmark indices and their greater use. benchmark committees deliberate over the construction of the index and determine the rules of the benchmark. investors need the benchmark indices to be used as performance indicators of the broad market and for an indication of the market direction and investors'sentiment on the corporate sector

of fatf, malaysia holds itself to the highest levels of integrity in adhering to international aml / cft / cpf standards. as we all know, crimes today transcend borders, and in response to this, malaysia has also forged and maintained strong relationships with our foreign counterparts, particularly where intelligence - sharing and investigations are concerned. additionally, our aml / cft / cpf regime is anchored by a robust surveillance system, which in turn helps ensure the effectiveness and timeliness of enforcement actions by the relevant law enforcement agencies. 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches on this note, in 2023, bank negara malaysia ( bnm ) had undertaken a total of 291 supervisory and enforcement actions on financial institutions, and forfeited assets from illegal activities amounting to approximately rm 11 million. the financial intelligence unit of bnm had also shared financial intelligence with domestic law enforcement agencies and more than 50 foreign fius, with 71 % of these disclosures related to highrisk crimes. we do not, and cannot, combat financial crimes alone. indeed, our regulatory and enforcement counterparts have played an equally critical role in this respect. the malaysian anti - corruption commission, or macc, for example, has made important and significant progress in graft - busting, including the opening of a total of 776 investigation papers, resulting in 869 arrests and a total of 326 charges brought to court between january and august 2023. our counterpart, the commercial crime investigation department of the royal malaysia police has also charged a total of 4, 880 cases in court between january and april 2024. these efforts are reflective of malaysia's keen determination to combat financial crimes and preserve the integrity of our financial system. while we have made commendable progress, we should not be complacent. ml / tf / pf risks continue to evolve, and if we let our guard down, it will pose serious threats to our financial system, our economy, our society, and our country. on that note, i would like to elaborate on five strategic priorities in our effort to further strengthen our national aml / cft / cpf regime : first of these is the new national coordination committee to counter money laundering roadmap that is currently being developed as we refresh our national risk assessment. this new roadmap, like the existing one, will outline key initiatives in the areas of investigation, enforcement, coordination, and capacity building. improvements and refinements will