At the same time, we recognise that our digital goals and aspirations can only be achieved through the values and behaviours of staff that promote inclusivity (between those that have technological skills and those that don’t); accountability (that is, the effective and responsible use of technology); effective collaboration that breaks away from working in silos; and an appropriate level of risk-taking that is compatible with a more agile and responsive organisation. And so we have taken pains to be specific and deliberate in our approach to building a digital culture within the Bank. This starts with being clear across the organisation on our tolerance for higher risks associated with disruptive innovations – through the development and communication of our digital risk appetite. We are shifting conversations on new digital initiatives away from the technical solutions themselves, to a greater focus on the business process transformations that they are intended to serve, and that is what we measure and track. We are also investing heavily in equipping our people with the knowledge, skills and confidence to make sound judgment calls in an environment where the pace of change is occurring at a dizzying speed, and our ability to anticipate risks is likely to be more constrained. At a practical level, this means being more precise about escalation, decision and communication protocols, while allowing more flexibility in internal policies to allow business lines to respond swiftly to emerging situations.
Jessica Chew Cheng Lian: Evolving governance, risk and control in the digital age Welcoming remarks by Jessica Chew Cheng Lian, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Conference on “Governance, Risk and Control in the Era of Disruption”, Kuala Lumpur, 9 December 2019. * * * Dr. Firas Raad, World Bank’s Country Manager for Malaysia, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. Good morning and welcome to Sasana Kijang. Bank Negara Malaysia is delighted to host this Conference on Governance, Risk and Controls in the Era of Disruption. Let me begin by sincerely thanking our joint host, the World Bank Group for working with us to put together a rich programme that speaks directly to issues that I am sure are keeping at least some of us awake at night. In the year 2000, the English author and academic, Sir Malcolm Bradbury wrote this: “We no longer live in the Age of Reason. We don’t have reason, we have computation. We don’t have a tree of knowledge, we have an information superhighway. We don’t have real intelligence, we have artificial intelligence. We no longer pursue truth, we seek data and signals. We no longer have philosophers, we have thinking pragmatists. We no longer have morals, we have lifestyles.” This rather grim view of the world was written almost two decades ago. Since then, the extent of technological change and disruption that has come to define our world gives these words a significance that few could have imagined.