Governor’s Keynote Address at the International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing (IFCTF) 2022 Speaker: Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus / Venue: Kuala Lumpur / Language: English / Speech/Interview Date: 26 Jul 2022 /  It is a pleasure to be able to speak again at this conference after a two-year hiatus. A lot has changed in these two years as we adjust to living with COVID-19. Like every other country, we anticipate with hope and perseverance, that the pandemic is well and truly behind us. But this exceptional and extraordinary period in our history will serve to remind us, that vigilance in the fight against financial crime can never be relaxed. During this period, reported financial crimes in many countries increased significantly, as criminals exploited conditions created by the pandemic, to commit financial crimes – making an already difficult time that much worse, for many who became victims of such crimes. Occasions like the IFCTF provide an opportunity to renew our determination to prevent the financial system from being abused for criminal purposes, or to inflict terror on our communities. Financial crimes have a direct and important effect on our economic prospects. So let me preface my remarks today with some observations on our economy. Malaysia is firmly on a recovery path. Supported by solid domestic activity and positive external demand, the economy is expected to grow steadily in 2022 and 2023, despite continuing challenges from rising cost pressures, the military conflict in Ukraine and strict containment measures in China.
In our recently published Financial Sector Blueprint, we stressed the need for strengthened cyber security readiness and responsiveness – not just within the financial sector, but across the whole chain of financial services. This includes third party service providers like telcos and cloud providers. After all, the defences against cyber threats are only as strong as the weakest link in that chain. An ongoing, critical priority for Bank Negara Malaysia and financial industry is to ensure our banking and payment channels remain secure and are equipped with the latest security controls and fraud risk management capabilities. Bank Negara Malaysia has issued multiple security advisories to the industry on modus operandi of latest frauds and additional countermeasures, and will continue to update regulatory requirements to take into account new risks. For example, to further strengthen security measures for online transactions, banks will be required to migrate from SMS-based “one-time passwords” to more secure, multi-factor authentication methods, for certain transactions. By their very nature, frauds and scams will continually seek to find ways to circumvent efforts to eradicate them. Bagai cendawan tumbuh selepas hujan. This means that in our efforts to combat scams, we continue to navigate the need to ensure the strong security measures against potential threats, without excessively increasing frictions that would affect the convenience of, and access to online financial services. For us to achieve this outcome, we also need customers to take steps to protect themselves against evolving threats.