. for most central banks in the emerging world, our mandate is broader. most certainly we are expected to have a role in contributing to addressing many of these challenges both directly and indirectly. most of all, not only do we have a voice but we also provide support to addressing many of these issues, whether it is on financial inclusion, financing of infrastructure or putting in place financial and social safety nets or on environmental bis central bankers ’ speeches sustainability. as much of these efforts will involve interface with other parts of the public sector, it has been my experience that the participation of the central bank in many of these agendas will require careful boundary management and a signing off when it is completed so that it does not remain permanently with the central bank. of great importance in this process is also to carefully safeguard the independence of the central bank. in conclusion, let me express my deep gratitude and appreciation to my fellow governors for all the cooperation and support that has been extended to me and to bank negara malaysia. for the friendship and for the collaboration, it has truly been enriching for me. and to the bis, thank you for this privilege to be part of the central bank community. bis central bankers ’ speeches

heart of their strategy, and 31 % are already purchasing the services of fintech companies. many are also partnering with fintech companies. for bank negara malaysia, we have also embraced the fintech agenda, setting up our internal fintech working group in 2016, launching our fintech sandbox not long after that and finally, organising our very own industry conference – the myfintech week in 2019. to be future ready, we are highly committed to support the digital transformation of the financial sector. earlier this year, we issued the e - kyc policy document to enable digital on - boarding of customers to occur anytime and anywhere. this is expected to be a catalyst in the provision of end - to - end financial services, particularly in a ‘ low touch ’ environment. the financial industry is taking steps to ensure safe and secure introduction of e - kyc, with several banks planning to launch e - kyc solutions in the coming months with more to follow in 2021. we are also currently in the final stages of developing the licensing framework for digital banking, which we envision can enhance access to affordable and quality financial solutions, particularly for the underserved and hard - to - reach market segments. from our sandbox experience, we also observe similar digital alternatives and solutions being developed in the insurance and takaful sector. our shift towards e - payments has also been sustained, with a 47 % increase in the volume of transactions made through internet and mobile banking, and a 260 % increase in active e - wallet users between august 2019 and 2020. furthermore, good progress has been made in enabling the interoperability of e - wallet services offered by banks and non - bank e - money issuers. looking ahead, bank negara malaysia 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches will continue to focus on fostering well - designed regulations to facilitate digitalisation and innovation in financial services. all these efforts are intended to support the financial services industry accelerate its transition to an age of digitalisation and innovation. we have high hopes for islamic finance to capitalise on this. in 2017, we launched the value - based intermediation ( vbi ) initiative. vbi encapsulates the industry ’ s vision to be more impact driven, reinforcing the overarching intent of shariah to promote good and prevent harm on the people and planet, which closely aligns with the global shift towards sustainable finance and esg. through the vbi initiative, islamic financial institutions have also been