An SME Credit Bureau and the Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) complements the infrastructure that is in place for SME financing by collating vital credit and transaction information that enable SMEs to build their credit reputation from a wide range of informational sources. The Bank also continues to actively reach out to support SMEs through the provision of financial planning and risk management services, and the promotion of financial literacy alongside similar initiatives by financial institutions. Public-private partnerships between The Association of Banks in Malaysia and Bank Negara Malaysia have also worked successfully to encourage improvements in customer service levels and the turn-around time taken to process SME financing applications. These initiatives have yielded tremendous payoffs to the national economy. Malaysia also ranked in first place in the world in 2009 in the category of access to credit by the World Bank in their “Doing Business 2010 Report”. BIS Review 98/2010  3  International and regional cooperation In a global economy, efforts to support SMEs must also address frameworks for facilitating trade, payments and financing beyond national borders. Effective regional and international collaboration can add significantly to enhance further the long term contribution of SMEs to the economy. The endeavour by APEC in the establishment of the APEC SME Working Group in 1995 has provided an important collaborative platform for policymakers and private sector leaders to come together in designing regional strategies for SME development.
Are we going to see the decline in the dominance of one global currency and its replacement by a new one or the formation of an alliance between currencies? Will it be the dominance of technology companies in providing payment services to the general public? TRUST Whatever the case may be, there is one thing we are certain of: Nothing has changed in our central banking task of maintaining the trust of the public in money and the financial system. Or to quote my colleague banker from the Bank for International Settlements, Mr Augustin Carstens, "The soul of money is trust.". We are still here to pursue monetary policy goals, to preserve the value of money by providing trust in the value of money and to offer money as a payment instrument that is widely accepted, secure, cheap and convenient. Our institutional task is to maintain confidence in the financial system and to serve as an anchor – a digital exchange for all other sorts of money that private issuers offer. To mention at this point – please, don't forget, everything you have today in your digital wallet, mobile banking app or similar is some sort of a payment instrument issued by a private entity. Some of them we supervise, some of them we don't. Whether it's a bank, a payment service provider, a stablecoin issuer or a globally interconnected anonymous network of nodes like Bitcoin, it isn't us you are banking with. But ... this may change.