These products were viewed as “safe” since, after all, the funds were only exposed for a short period of time, and in the case of repo, they were secured by collateral. On the demand side, setting aside any possible instabilities in this funding source, it was more profitable to use shorter-term funds to finance longer-term assets. In fact, the growing reliance on short-term wholesale funding to finance longer-term assets increased liquidity and maturity mismatch risk in the financial system. This was particularly dangerous because many of the assets being financed were structured-credit products, some of which were opaque, difficult to value and illiquid. In periods of market stress, these features increase the run risk by funding providers. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Short-term funding of longer-term assets is inherently unstable, especially in the presence of information and coordination problems. It can be rational for a funding provider to supply funds on a short-term basis, reasoning that it can exit if there is any uncertainty over the firm’s continued ability to roll over its funding from other sources. But, if the use of short-term funding becomes sufficiently widespread, the firm’s roll-over risk increases. In this situation, there is a strong incentive for each lender to “run” early if there is any uncertainty that could undermine the borrower’s ability to continue to roll over its funding from other sources.
The focus has gradually shifted from strengthening intermediaries in the domestic Islamic financial industry to fortifying the regulatory, supervisory, Shariah and liquidity framework necessary for such a robust financial system. This has involved greater international cooperation and collaboration in this new environment. A further development has been the evolution of the domestic Islamic financial markets into international markets. This has manifested itself in the form of foreign participation in raising funds and in investment activities in these markets, thus generating increased cross border financial flows. This has drawn participation from both emerging and the developed world in Islamic and non-Islamic countries. Going forward, the Islamic financial system is envisaged to have an increasing important role in connecting the world economies – through the strengthening of financial linkages, it will in turn facilitate increased international trade and investment activities. This internationalisation of Islamic finance will require the intensification of international collective efforts to establish the international Islamic financial architecture, and the development of mechanisms for more effective cross-border liquidity management. Central to achieving this next thrust of development is to develop a high caliber and competent talent base to cultivate financial innovation. Therein lies the investment needed in human capital development to support the industry. While Malaysia’s own experience and aspirations is to evolve into an international Islamic financial centre, we also continue to promote a more inclusive financial system to support a more balanced growth. On the international front, the aim is to enhance our international connectivity and thus establish greater economic linkages with other economies.