to enjoy the convenience of banking at anytime and anywhere without the hassle of having to queue at the bank counter or hiring employees to perform daily banking activities. among other benefits of online banking and ibg is that, it offers faster movement of funds compared to payment using cheques. for example, the transfer of funds through ibg performed before noon allows a person to receive the funds within the same day compared to cheques that will take a couple of days to three days. for a beneficiary who has an account within the same bank with the payer, which is known as intrabank, the funds will be credited instantaneously. the program for today includes the showing of three video clips on online banking and ibg, which can be downloaded through youtube and abm and aibim ’ s website, including presentations by two banks. in addition, 17 banks and myclear ( the national payment system operator ) have also set up exhibition booths to showcase their respective electronic payments and funds transfer solutions. this is indeed an opportunity not to be missed as you will be able to learn and ask questions about online banking solutions and sign up for the special offers such as free security tokens or waiver of monthly subscription fee for business internet banking as provided by some of the exhibitors today. bis central bankers ’ speeches in conjunction with today ’ s roadshow, i am pleased to announce that 2 banks namely, bank simpanan nasional and ocbc bank, together with 8 banks in temerloh1 in kuantan will hold their “ open day ” from today, 2 december until this friday, 6 december. during the weeklong “ open day ”, visitors can enquire and learn more about e - payment solutions from the branch staff. the “ open day ” event is open to all businesses and the general public to complement the efforts of the roadshow to reach out to smaller towns and i encourage all participants to take this opportunity to visit the bank branches in kuantan and temerloh. based on the “ open day ” events held in 8 towns in 4 states for the past 2 months, more than 900 ( 911 ) banks ’ customers have signed up to use the online banking services. for information of all participants, to date, cheques are still widely used in our country. based on the last 3 years data, an average of 205 million cheques amounting to about rm2 trillion are issued on an annual basis. in terms of the

the application of the strategy in practice, guiding market expectations. although the strategy is complex, we generally try to end with an overall assessment which summarises the opinion of the council on the future situation. the press conference provides prompt information in an even - handed way, and it offers the opportunity for immediate two - way communication. as far as i am aware, no other central bank regularly communicates with the public in such a prompt and open manner immediately after its monetary policy meetings. we are convinced that this contributes to reducing uncertainty in the markets and thus gives important and clear guidance, also with regard to short - term policy moves. in this respect, one should recognise that the ecb is facing a completely new environment. we do not only have to decide on the single monetary policy for a new monetary area comprising 11 independent countries, but also to communicate with the public and markets of these 11 countries, which were used to quite different monetary policy strategies and communication policies in the past. this diversity of monetary history, communication and culture across the euro area obviously constitutes a great challenge for communicating in a comprehensible and transparent way both with the general public and the markets. obviously, journalists, financial markets and the public are still in the process of learning the new strategy of monetary policy in the euro area and, over time, the eurosystem will further improve its communication. let me finally address the third part of your question : ( “ does more information necessarily mean better guidance? ” ). i am convinced that it is misleading to assume that more information always means better policy and a clearer guidance to the market. what is important is that the information given to the public is clearly structured and understandable, avoids adding uncertainty and is provided in an even - handed way. the eurosystem ’ s monetary policy strategy has been designed with these aims in mind. moreover, as indicated, a high degree of credibility of monetary policy can make a substantial contribution to reducing uncertainty in the markets and is thus a key aim of our policy. what is clearly more important than the amount of information given is that the communication policy, as part of the strategy, is consistent with the structure of the internal decision - making process. i can assure you that this is indeed the case. during the monthly press conferences, i make an introductory statement summarising the governing council ’ s discussions and conclusions before answering questions from journalists. as the statement is agreed, in substance, with all the council members beforehand, it is