##mediaries and correspondent banking with varying levels of operational efficiency, local requirements and cut - off times effectively lead to longer processing time and incur higher cost ; lack of transparency in the traceability and visibility of payment status, primarily due to lack of standardized payment status notification process ; and limited access of cross - border payment services, often caused by time zone differences and mismatch in operating hours of intermediaries. given these challenges, i believe that more innovative approaches are required to ensure that users can access safe and affordable cross - border payment channels. if banks are not providing these critical cross - border financial services, users may resort to less - or non - regulated channels. recently, new business models and arrangements have also emerged to address the prevailing 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches gaps in the cross - border payments space. these among others include the introduction of swift ’ s global payment initiative ( swiftgpi ), a pioneering attempt at linking payment infrastructure through the experimental usage of distributed ledger technology. these have the potential to improve efficiency, allowing faster, secure and transparent cross - border payments. at the asean level, efforts have been made to foster greater regional integration through linkages of the real - time retail payment infrastructures ( rt - rps ). the asean payments policy framework was established as a set of principles to facilitate the linkages of rt - rps. bilateral arrangements have also been established by several asean countries, including malaysia, to enhance the efficiency of cross - border payments. for instance, linking between singapore ’ s paynow and thailand ’ s promptpay to facilitate more seamless cross - border payment transactions in real - time, and similarly to extend the linkage to malaysia ’ s duitnow. once operationalised, this could enable cross - border payments between participating financial institutions to be virtually as seamless as domestic transactions. at the national level, bank negara malaysia ( bnm ) is directing its regulatory and supervisory resources towards safeguarding the safety and soundness of payment and remittance systems. we are stepping up efforts to reinforce public confidence and acceptance of e - payment and eremittance services, particularly among underserved segments. we are also working to futureproof the country ’ s payment infrastructure to meet evolving market needs, including migrating to the iso 20022. as a global messaging standard with richer data content, iso 20022 has the potential to drive greater payments efficiency, facilitate risk management and compliance with regulations as well as facilitate cross - border

sustained growth in world gdp, an increase in global trade integration, and a very sizeable increase in trade with the ten new member states of the european union. all in all, these developments are particularly noteworthy given the already high degree of openness of the euro area countries, suggesting that we are not witnessing the creation of a “ fortress europe ” but that the european integration is perfectly complementary with the global integration. see, among others, engel and rogers ( 2004 ) “ european product market integration after the euro, ” economic policy, july pp. 347 - 384, and mccallum ( 1995 ) “ national borders matter : canada - us regional trade patterns ”, american economic review 85 ( 3 ) : 615 - 623. for a description of the european process of integration see mongelli, f. p., e. dorrucci, and i. agur ( 2005 ) “ what does european institutional integration tell us about trade integration? ”, ecb occasional paper series no 40. garcia - herrero, gaspar, hoogduin, morgan and winkler ( 2001 ) introduction of volume with conference proceedings, in why price stability, first ecb central banking conference, european central bank. in june 2005, the ecb held a workshop on “ what effects is emu having on the euro area and its member countries? ” the workshop was organised in five areas : 1 ) trade integration ; 2 ) business cycle synchronisation, economic specialisation and risk sharing ; 3 ) financial integration ; 4 ) structural reforms in product and labour markets ; and 5 ) inflation persistence. all proceedings are now available in the ecb working paper series : see nos 594 to 599. see baldwin ( 2006 ) “ the euro ’ s trade effects, ” ecb working paper series no 554, and anderton, di mauro, and moneta. ( 2004 ) “ understanding the impact of the external dimension of the euro area : trade, capital flows and other macroeconomic linkages, ” ecb occasional paper no 12. a lesser - known feature is that trade in services with partners inside and outside the euro area has also increased as a percentage of gdp in recent years. intra - euro area exports and imports of services increased from about 5 % of gdp in 1998 to around 6. 5 % in 2005. proportionately, this represents a slightly higher increase than extra - euro area exports and imports of services, which increased from about 7. 5 %