Bank Negara welcomes more feedback from public

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has urged the public, especially in non-urban areas, to interface with it more on services provided by the financial institutions in the country.

Its governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said the financial system must be effective in supporting balanced economic growth for the country.

"Financial inclusion aims at all segments of the economy irrespective of income, economic activity or region to have access to financial services," she said, when launching BNM's mobile customer service coach MobileLINK here yesterday.

The financial inclusion agenda will be an important part of the 10- year financial masterplan, which will be launched by the Prime Minister on December 21, she added.

Cost-efficiency channels, range of products and services and financial consumer education and protection are among the areas of focus.

More people are participating in the financial system as gauged from the deposit accounts which have increased from 19,738 per 10,000 adults in 2000 to 29,311 per 10,000 adults this year.

Loan accounts have also increased to 8,600 this year from 3,105 in 2000.

Zeti said MobileLINK's journey will cover about 50 per cent of the non-urban areas nationwide in the next three years.

In the first phase, it will start from Mersing in Johor on December 17 before continuing to northern states and back to the south to Jerantut in Pahang by December 2012.

The terminals in MobileLINK coaches are connected to BNM's Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS), Customer Redress Mechanism System and its corporate website.

It also provides advisory services on banking, insurance and takaful and small and medium enterprise financing-related matters, information on personal credit through CCRIS, information on BNM through the self-service web-based terminal made available in the coach and advisory services on other financial-related matters.

Zeti also urged the public to report to BNM and the police on scams in the market.

"We don't want to wait until it is serious before we inform the public that there are these scams. It is not just telling people who are not involved in the financial sector but also those who are already in the financial mainstream, that means participating in the financial system.

"They don't have the knowledge that some of these are scams and it is important to be educated," she said, referring to the recent warning advertisements the central bank had placed in newspapers.

Some of the scams use BNM letterheads and names of its senior officials.