marzunisham omar : opening address - 25th apg typologies workshop 2024 opening address by mr marzunisham omar, deputy governor of the central bank of malaysia ( bank negara malaysia ), at the 25th apg typologies workshop 2024, kuala lumpur, 11 november 2024. * * * selamat datang and selamat pagi. this means welcome and good morning in the malay language. it is a great honour to welcome all of you to the 25th apg typologies workshop. to our foreign guests, welcome to kuala lumpur and welcome to bank negara malaysia. hosting this for the fourth time, i have always found this workshop beneficial to stay ahead of evolving trends in money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing ( ml / tf / pf ). with the new round of mutual evaluations ( me ) on the horizon, workshops such as this have become even more important, enabling us to come together to discuss and learn from each other on emerging financial crime typologies. ladies and gentlemen, all of us share a common vision to preserve the integrity of our financial system. financial crimes are like an endemic that could ravage a country. one, it evolves quickly, requiring adaptive strategies to monitor and respond to the symptoms. two, it spreads quickly, and needs to be detected earlier and stopped, or it will create havoc. three, it requires a precise and comprehensive approach to effectively combat it. today, i will offer three characteristics of a robust approach to combating financial crimes, namely : 1. " a " - - adapting our strategies ; 2. " p " - - partnering across all stakeholders ; and 3. " g " - - growing our capabilities ; or, in short, apg. before i elaborate, allow me to briefly comment regarding the abuse of legal persons and cyber - enabled fraud. recent high - profile corruption and ml scandals, such as those exposed by the panama and pandora papers, have shed light on the sophisticated misuse of corporate structures. criminals exploit these complex setups to conceal true ownership, thus evading detection and oversight. meanwhile, the digitalisation trend has also heightened the effect of cyber - enabled fraud. the global anti - scam alliance reported that at least 25 % of the global population has been affected by fraud, that is one in four people, with global losses from scams 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches accounting for 1.

1 % of global gdp in 2023. that is a lot of money. financial action task force ( fatf ) and interpol also highlighted fraud as a significant ml risk, identifying threats such as ransomware, phishing and online scams as among the top ten cybercrime trends. we also observe this in malaysia. fraud has been identified as one of our top high - risk crimes in our national risk assessment 2023. malaysia's national scam response centre ( nsrc ) has received over 131, 000 calls from scam victims, with reported losses totalling rm388 million, or around usd80 million, as of september 2024. let us now turn to the three characteristics of a robust response to financial crimes. first : adapting our approach what may have worked in the past may not work now. threats, like viruses, evolve over time. through the national risk assessment exercise, threats and risks to ml / tf / pf are regularly identified and assessed. critically, we must ensure that our domestic laws and regulations are fit for purpose, and relevant to the emerging threats and risks. one such example is the fatf's recent revision of recommendation 24, which highlights the need for beneficial ownership ( bo ) registries to ensure timely access to bo information by authorities. these registries enhance law enforcement agencies'ability to trace the real'masterminds'behind companies. it prevents risk transfers and exposes those operating in the shadows, allowing us to stop'bad actors'before abuse becomes widespread and turns into an endemic. countries worldwide, including the us, uk and indonesia, in the apg region, have established bo registries. in malaysia, platforms like e - bos1 and pearl2 have been set up to facilitate access to bo data, thus assisting law enforcement agencies in their investigations. let us not also forget the important and crucial role played by our designated nonfinancial businesses and professions ( dnfbps ), such as company secretaries and lawyers. they are often targeted to facilitate the creation of opaque corporate structures. ensuring that these key actors are well - informed and well - regulated is vital in fostering a resilient system. this was highlighted in fatf's recent report on the " horizontal review of gatekeepers " technical compliance related to corruption. by equipping dnfbps, they are also able to play a role in identifying and reporting suspicious activities. second : the importance of public - private partnership ladies