Bank Negara will be making changes to the local banking education infrastructure to embrace the latest professional standards.

“We are now looking at a new landscape for our banking education infrastructure and plan to announce soon on the developments and delivery of a broad range of industry programmes that will embrace professional standards that are more applied and reflective of the times.

“It might include multi-disciplinary research that covers areas such as thought leadership, publications and flagship conferences,” said deputy governor Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim in a statement yesterday.

He noted also that there were three forces reshaping the banking industry across Asia-Pacific currently.

“The first is on emerging markets and in particular Asia’s emergence as a dynamic centre for the global economy. Whilst risks to the outlook for global growth continue, with new events unfolding daily, Asia’s economic growth remains strong and transformation is expected to expand well into the future.”

Ibrahim said the strong growth of Islamic finance across Asia in the recent years was the second factor.

“This dynamic segment would continue to offer strong growth prospect going forward, backed by its increasing importance as a tool for enhancing financial inclusion and reaching out to the under-served segments, the growing demand for socially-responsible investment and ethical financial services in this post-crisis era, and the increase in the wealth of individuals in Asia,” he added.

He added that the impact of global regulatory reform in response to the global financial crisis was another important force that would continue to drive change in the financial landscape.

“The Asian financial sector was resilient throughout the crisis. But Asia is not immune to the volatility and uncertainty that is constantly changing our financial and economic landscape. Some areas of the regulatory reforms, notably capital and liquidity requirements, have now progressed into the implementation phase.”

Ibrahim also said there was a need for financial institutions to embrace a fundamental change in mindset – from treating risk management for regulatory compliance – to being, a fundamental part of strategic executive decision-making.

“The regulatory change comes with the expectation for banks’ enhanced capabilities around stress testing, capital and liquidity planning, risk governance and regulatory reporting.”

He said financial institutions with foresight would take the opportunity to turn these regulatory enhancements into sources of competitive advantage.

*This article was published by The Star Online. Read the original article here.