to go " beyond banks and beyond lending " to close the sme funding gap. given the diversity of smes and their financing needs, we believe a more complete solution to the sme financing challenge must address efforts in three equal parts : 1 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches first, enhancing the traditional role of banks and bank financing while recognising the limitations of bank financing, particularly at earlier stages of the life - cycle for new and innovative firms. second, developing and deepening alternative sources of financing to complement traditional bank financing. and third, strengthening firm - level factors to improve the ability of smes to gain affordable access to finance. important strides have been made to advance efforts on these fronts. access to traditional bank financing for smes continues to be enhanced through innovative modalities such as : itekad which blends philanthropic and commercial funds to provide seed capital and microfinancing to microentrepreneurs, alongside specific handholding and capacity building support. credit guarantee institutions such as cgc have introduced portfolio guarantees to provide credit enhancements at greater speed and scale for borrowers that lack collateral and track records. skim cakna, a liquidity scheme introduced in 2021, has also been successfully expanded to help smes manage their cashflows by leveraging on their contracts with the government. the imsme online referral platform, launched by the credit guarantee corporation malaysia ( cgc ), has helped reduce smes'search effort and costs for loans by matching their financing needs with relevant financing options from multiple providers – both banks and non - banks - thus addressing an important pain point faced by smes in sourcing suitable financing. this is complemented by the khidmat nasihat pembiayaan platform, or myknp, which provides advise to help unsuccessful financing applicants improve their eligibility for future financing. banks will continue to play an important role in the sme financing ecosystem, and there is still considerable room to further evolve their role – particularly in the area of enabling lending decisions based on alternative data and supporting larger ticket, longer - tenure and flexible financing solutions through risk - sharing arrangements that will not expose depositor funds to excessive risk. here, we are also making important inroads. the entry of digital banks and alternative fund raising platforms such as crowdfunding and p2p platforms that offer different business models and innovative approaches to credit assessments will contribute to the expansion and diversification of funding sources for smes

putting in place avenues for redress. recent initiatives include evolving a more effective financial mediation bureau ( fmb ) to ensure that consumers of all financial service providers under the purview of the central bank have recourse to an independent, fair and impartial dispute resolution mechanism. earlier this year a deposit insurance scheme was introduced to further strengthen incentives for financial institutions to adopt sound financial and business practices and enhance public confidence in the financial system by providing explicit protection on deposits. bank negara malaysia is also currently finalising the details for the establishment of a credit counselling and debt management agency to be introduced early next year, with the aim of providing individuals with credit counselling and assistance in restructuring of their debts. to promote financial education at an early age, bank negara malaysia embarked on an education programme in schools on basic financial knowledge in partnership with the education ministry since 1997. further, in collaboration with the financial industry's associations, bank negara malaysia launched a ten year consumer education programme ( cep ) for the banking and insurance sectors. we are now in the fifth year of this programme. extensive information is being disseminated via the spectrum of distribution channels including newspapers, radio, websites, branches of financial institutions and outreach programmes. the consumer education efforts are also complemented by initiatives to promote a higher level of disclosure and transparency so as to ensure that consumers have access to relevant, comparable and timely information on products and services. a significant focus has been on the insurance sector, given that a significant segment of the malaysian consumers do not have good understanding of insurance products. in particular, guidelines on medical and health insurance and the requirements for marketing of life insurance policies, have been strengthened while rules for independent financial advisers have been introduced. in meeting socio - economic objectives, there is also a need to ensure that the welfare and interests of all segments of society are protected and that no target group is excluded or marginalised. indeed, an important component of our consumer protection framework is to ensure that all consumers continue to have access to basic banking services at reasonable costs. in this connection, a more interventionist approach has been pursued to require banking institutions to offer a list of basic banking services to all malaysians and to set guiding principles for the imposition of fees and charges for these retail products and services for individuals and small and medium sized enterprises. efforts have also been taken by the central bank in collaboration with the financial services industry to enhance the integrity of the payments systems and instruments, aimed at promoting confidence