initiatives that i just outlined provide the foundation for e - payments to be less costly and to offer to the public a cheaper alternative to paper - based payment methods. the market incentive structures on the other hand, will foster effective competition and sustain the industry efforts in providing value - added and efficient payment offerings to their customers. it is in the interest of all for the financial services industry, especially the payment infrastructure providers and the financial institutions, to work cohesively to enhance the payment services where gaps remain. this should be complemented with shared investment in infrastructure building and network expansion to achieve economies of scale. bis central bankers ’ speeches 2. key priority areas to accelerate the displacement of cash and cheques progress in the displacement of cheques should be sustained promising progress has been made in the reduction of cheque usage through the use of electronic funds transfer services such as the interbank giro ( ibg ) and the instant interbank funds transfer ( ibft ). this is mostly attributable to the lower transaction fees and the efforts by the financial institutions in offering incentives and guiding their customers to adopt e - payments. between 2011 and 2015, the number of cheques issued had reduced by 27 %, from 205 million cheques in 2011 to 148 million cheques in 2015. at the same, the number of ibg transactions had increased by 147 % from 60 million transactions in 2011 to 149 million transactions in 2015. this is a key milestone as the number of ibg transactions surpassed the number of cheques cleared for the first time. the ibft transactions had also increased significantly by almost eight - fold from 5. 8 million transactions in 2011 to 47 million transactions in 2015. this signifies greater public confidence in the use of e - payments. such achievement is also indicative of how effective collaboration and coordinated efforts by the various stakeholders in the payment value chain could produce the intended outcomes. we should put in more effort to sustain the cheque reduction whilst promoting greater adoption of e - payments in areas where the usage of cheques is still relatively high. these areas include interbank card and loan repayment, over - the - counter cheque payments to government agencies and cheques usage in the takaful and insurance industry. intensified efforts needed in the displacement of cash our progress in promoting the use of debit cards as an alternative to cash however, has been modest. for the period between 2011 and 2015, there was only a marginal increase from 1 to 3 debit card transactions per capita and from 7 to

has been more gradual and sequenced to ensure that the financial system promotes balanced growth while remaining stable and sustainable. the robust legal and regulatory framework, together with the availability of a large and diverse pool of talent and expertise in islamic finance, forms the solid components in the system to meet the requirements of businesses. there is also shariah certainty in islamic finance through a robust shariah governance framework, which comprises shariah committees at the industry level and the shariah advisory council at the regulatory level. malaysia ’ s supportive framework and process for sukuk origination and sukuk listing also facilitates the issuance process of ringgit or nonringgit denominated sukuk in our market. efforts to deepen the sukuk market have provided significant opportunities for participation in this market, with the size of the malaysian sovereign and corporate sukuk outstanding growing threefold from a total of rm120 billion in 2005 to rm353 billion as at end - 2011. the market has also drawn the interest of foreign participation for their financing and investment activities. key in the development of islamic finance in malaysia has been its progressive internationalisation and the introduction of more innovative shariah - compliant financial solutions that meet the increasingly more complex and diverse international business requirements. bis central bankers ’ speeches let me conclude my remarks. in serving the needs of the real economy, islamic finance offers a comprehensive and competitive solution in meeting funding and investment requirements of businesses. given its international outreach and dimension, and ability to provide a total financial solution, islamic finance is now at the frontier in which it presents new opportunities to support the economy and overall financial stability. today ’ s dialogue session would serve to provide a greater understanding and appreciation on islamic finance and its potential for the intermediation of finances for international businesses. bis central bankers ’ speeches