World Bank To Leverage On Regional Office In Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 (Bernama) -- The World Bank Group will leverage on the setting up of its regional office in Malaysia to learn how the country has managed to ensure its people had access to financial services. Director, Finance & Markets Global Practice, Sebastian Molineus said global data showed that 92 per cent of Malaysians had access to financial services and this was a remarkable achievement compared with other countries in the region. "The regional office in Malaysia will be the knowledge hub for a number of financial sectors including Islamic finance. "The idea is to learn a little bit about the success here in Malaysia and later, export it to other countries," he said during a panel discussion at the Global Islamic Finance Forum here Wednesday. Molineus pointed that two billion people were still unbanked globally and it was estimated that 682 million of them were Muslims. "Looking at this figure, there is a tremendous opportunity in the Islamic financial services industry. "Agencies and governments need to join forces and work together in addressing this problem," he added. He also said the World Bank had set 2020 as a target year for universal financial access. "This is not something that we can achieve on our own and we hope everyone will take part to help achieve the target," he added. -- BERNAMA