expanding the insurance marketplace. finally, there is a renewed focus on financial inclusion to ensure that all segments of society benefit from economic growth. this includes ensuring that everyone is adequately protected from catastrophic events and other adverse shocks. swiss re has estimated the mortality protection gap in south and east asia to be around usd32 trillion 8. closing these gaps would require a clear vision to which all stakeholders, from the insurance industry to the government and financial regulators, must aspire through stronger collaboration and coordinated initiatives. in this regard the bank aims to increase the insurance and takaful penetration rate in malaysia, defined as number of policies per population, to 75 % by 2020 9 supported by other measures to promote the long - term sustainable growth and development of the industry as outlined in the life insurance and family takaful framework ( life framework ). in the environment i have just described, insurers can no longer afford to rely solely on traditional business models and delivery channels. instead, insurers must be aligned to the broad diversity of consumer needs and preferences, while also being flexible to adapt as these needs and preferences change over time. such a market will see the emergence of a diversity of business models from multi - channel strategies to specialised players focused on single channels such as direct marketing, financial advisers or bancassurance. still others will realise the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid 10 through microinsurance. specialisation is also expected to occur along the supply chain with new players, including from noninsurance sectors such as retailers, adding greater value with innovations in areas ranging from branding and marketing to data enrichment. international telecommunication union - ict facts and figures 2013. nielsen quoted by media research. swiss re - sigma no. 6 / 2013 life insurance : focusing on the consumer. based on the target set under the economic transformation programme ( etp ). c. k. prahalad “ fortune at the bottom of the pyramid : eradicating poverty through profits ”. bis central bankers ’ speeches bancassurance, financial advisers and direct channels while the possibilities for alternative distribution channels are extensive, i will address three areas that are already showing great promise for our markets here in asia, namely : bancassurance, financial advisers and direct channels. bancassurance presents a unique proposition for insurers to widen their outreach while maintaining acquisition costs at manageable levels. by leveraging on banks ’ existing branch network and customer base, which are well established throughout most markets in asia, insurers

credit growth in the euro area has, for instance, been on the decline since the second half of 2012. bis central bankers ’ speeches even though more recent surveys undertaken by the eurosystem on bank lending show that credit conditions in the crisis countries have largely stabilised in the first half of this year, around 60 % of the banks report that the current terms and conditions for loans are more restrictive than those prevailing, on average, over the period since 2003. and if businesses or consumers know that they have to pay more for a loan than their credit standing would justify, they will not even ask for credit. that is exactly where the second part of our package of measures kicks in. the two targeted longer - term refinancing operations we have announced for september and december this year will allow banks to borrow, for a period of up to four years, funds in an amount of initially 7 % of their euro area non - financial private sector loans outstanding at the end of april. the focus of our endeavours in this respect is clearly on loans to businesses. that is why residential loans to households have been excluded. between march 2015 and june 2016, all eurosystem counterparties will be able to borrow additional funds. that additional liquidity will, however, be closely linked to the respective bank ’ s net lending in order to ensure that the money actually goes where it is needed. but many of you may be asking yourselves whether, given that many banks are already repaying the funds raised through the previous three - year longer - term refinancing operations early, there is really any further need for long - term liquidity. we are indeed noting that the terms and conditions under which banks can raise funds on the money and credit markets have eased considerably ( by around 100 basis points ) since july 2012, and that this has slowly reduced their dependence on central bank liquidity. the target balances relating to payment transactions between central banks have fallen by some €540 billion, i. e. have been almost halved. these are favourable signs. although financing conditions for banks in the crisis countries have improved dramatically, interest rates on loans to small and medium - sized enterprises ( smes ) in these countries are nonetheless still significantly higher than those in germany or other core countries. the high lending rates in the crisis countries are, of course, due to the higher credit risk there, as can also be seen from the high risk of default and the proportion of non - performing loans in these countries