With that in mind, today I would like to touch on four areas of particular relevance as we navigate this digital world: First, the role of digital leadership; Second, ensuring the quality of growth in the financial sector; Third, future-proofing the workforce; and Fourth, preparing our society for digital finance  Digital leadership in the face of changing market dynamics Let me turn first to digital leadership. Strong digital leadership starts with an acceptance of a new normal. Historically, finance has been a close-knit community. But the barriers to entry are being lifted by technology. As I alluded to earlier, this has blurred the boundaries of what it means to be a bank, or a financial services provider. As a result, banks are no longer just competing with other banks. Non-traditional players – such as fintech firms and platform-based companies – are increasingly well-positioned to offer financial services. Digital disruptors want to not only gain market share, but to transform the market itself. This is reflected in the willingness to take loss-leading positions when entering a market. The changing market dynamics raise some important strategic questions for banks – including how banks will choose to fundamentally approach competition, what this means for existing business models, and what outcomes this will entail both in the short and longer term. One strategy has been to leverage opportunities for collaboration – whether among existing players or new entrants. We see this emerging as an increasingly important, if not inevitable, response globally on several fronts.
In the blockchain space, the industry in a number of jurisdictions has pooled resources to defray the cost of experimentation involved in developing scaleable use cases for the technology’s application. In Malaysia, nine banks have done this by coming together to develop blockchain applications for trade finance. Establishing shared networks, or opening up previously closed ones, is also gaining traction. This can be seen in the growing use of Open Application Programme Interfaces (or Open APIs). Over the last five years, publications of APIs in the financial sector have increased exponentially, with an estimated 200 new APIs published every year. In a survey that we conducted earlier this year, more than half of banks and insurers in Malaysia indicated plans to roll out open APIs in the near to medium term. At the industry level, the Bank has established an open API implementation group with members drawn from the industry, fintech community and key stakeholders to develop open API standards 2/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  for the financial sector as part of efforts to broaden access and promote innovation and competition. On the risk management front, the World Economic Forum announced less than three weeks ago the creation of a consortium to facilitate more coordinated efforts in addressing cybersecurity risks. This entails developing common principles for risk assessments, guidance for implementation, and a scoring framework. In the area of payments, the Bank has just last week issued the Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF), which promotes collaborative competition or ‘co-opetition’ for mobile payments.