Muhammad bin Ibrahim: Raising awareness of financial knowledge in Malaysia Welcoming remarks by Mr Muhammad bin Ibrahim, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at Karnival Kewangan 2017, Kuala Lumpur, 13 January 2017. * * * It is my honour to be here this morning for the Opening Ceremony of the inaugural Finance Carnival. The carnival is an initiative formed through the collaboration of various ministries, agencies and financial institutions. It aspires to raise the level of public awareness in three important areas: financial services; knowledge of financial management; and consumer protection. I would like to extend my appreciation to Yang Berhormat Datuk Johari bin Abdul Ghani, Second Finance Minister, who has graciously agreed to join us today in officiating the Carnival. Finance has the power to transform lives The pursuit of financial knowledge is a key economic imperative. It also has the ability to transform lives. In today’s world, the ability and knowledge to save, invest and borrow are essential life skills, be it for individuals or businesses. For businesses, including small enterprises, financial knowledge is particularly important in generating income and to secure financing. Various efforts have been undertaken to improve financial inclusion in Malaysia. The results so far are promising. Currently, the majority of Malaysians (over 90 percent) have access to formal financial services. 92% of adults have a savings account, while 98% of users have performing financing accounts.
It is equally important that an equally high level of security be provided for all elements of financial services. Information security in dealings with external suppliers is becoming increasingly critical. The technological vulnerabilities that arise when different technologies are integrated can make it easier for fraudsters to access data. Unfortunately, we can also provide a recent example of this. Therefore, banks should not be reluctant to control compliance by your suppliers and suppliers of services for you, and should not shy away from setting cybersecurity requirements. There is a standard for this. The Bank of Russia issued it in 2018. Compliance with it must now be taken especially seriously. 6/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  We will continue to develop supervision in cyber security. We also plan to develop the practice of conducting cyber drills, i.e., stress testing of information security. The purpose of such tests is to understand whether an organisation can identify a potential attack, quickly identify it, localise it, and eliminate the consequences — and, ultimately, to understand how such an attack could affect the organisation’s financial stability. Our task is protecting customers’ funds. As for the joint infrastructure solutions that Mr Aksakov spoke about, we are ready to discuss them further, including why we do not currently see proposals by the market itself to create such systems for collective use, and we are ready to participate and see what the Bank of Russia can do.