The Central Credit Reference Information System, or CCRIS, (owned and operated by Bank Negara Malaysia) was established in October 2001 and has since been acknowledged as one of the most comprehensive public registries in the world. The operationalisation of CCRIS expanded the role of the credit information registry beyond a supervisory focus to supporting prudent and more efficient credit and financial management decisions among Malaysian borrowers and financial institutions. CCRIS enables real time access to both positive and negative credit information on all borrowers in the banking system and of a selected group of non-banks. At present, the system contains more than 21.9 million outstanding credit accounts and 7.6 million borrower records. The system is supported by rigorous controls that protect the integrity of such information, which in turn, enables the Bank and supervisors to perform granular and multidimensional analysis and assessments of credit risks and credit-related vulnerabilities in the banking system. For banking institutions in Malaysia, the ability through CCRIS, to tap into ten years of borrower credit records spanning the entire population of banking institutions has been  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  instrumental in accelerating enhancements to the management of credit risk by banks, in particular the development and validation of credit scoring models. Today, information extracted from CCRIS is used as a key input in banks’ credit decisions. The availability of current information has also facilitated more expedient and robust credit decisions.
And the G20 fulfilled the most optimistic anticipations as it reacted promptly and strongly to the crisis. Beyond this, the G20 has also agreed on an ambitious policy agenda, aiming for the long run. The G20 Roadmap does not only aim at one particular aspect of the global economy; it is very encompassing. One aspect of it is macrorebalancing, another is on financial regulation and global financial safety nets. The G20 agenda is focused on crisis prevention by coordination in order to avoid, or at least dampen overheating and boom/bust cycles. How are these issues related? First I will briefly tackle the important question of the link between the financial crisis and global imbalances. Second, I will go through the main implications of this link and outline the key features of the policy agenda of the G20. In this second part I will mostly focus on the so-called “G20 Framework for a Strong, Sustainable  BIS Review 93/2010  1  and Balanced Growth” and on financial safety nets. In the last section I will focus on financial regulation issues more specifically. Why and how do the financial crisis and global imbalances interact? An overwhelming body of research has established the clear relation between global imbalances and financial issues, some of which were behind the financial crisis. Indeed, global imbalances were not just the result of cyclical factors, such as business cycle fluctuations, changes in oil and other commodity prices, etc.