AICB NEXUS 2026: AI, Trust and the Future of Finance

AICB NEXUS 2026: AI, Trust and the Future of Finance

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Yang Berbahagia Dato' Sri Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour,
Governor, Bank Negara Malaysia

Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Azman Hashim,
Chairman Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers

Yang Berbahagia Dato' Sri Khairussaleh Ramli,
Chairman The Association of Banks in Malaysia

Assalamualaiikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh and

Salam Malaysia MADANI

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

1. Let me begin with a simple observation. Long before finance became digital, algorithmic and instantaneous, it began with something much more basic: a ledger.
   
   
2. A ledger was never merely a book of numbers. It was a record of trust. It told us who owed what, who had honoured their obligations, who could be relied upon, and who could not.
   
   
3. In many ways, the history of banking is the history of society learning how to formalise trust - protect it, and scale it across households, businesses, markets and borders.
   
   
4. Today, that ledger looks very different.
   
   
5. It is no longer bound in paper or confined to branches or vaults. It sits in cloud systems, payment rails, mobile applications, risk engines and artificial intelligence models. It moves faster than any human hand can write.
   
   
6. Whatever form the ledger takes, one thing must remain constant: trust. And it is trust - its preservation, its evolution, its defence - that sits at the heart of the Malaysian Banking Conference and Bank Audit Conference at AICB Nexus 2026.
   
   
7. As its name suggests, this conference serves as a timely nexus, bringing together the interconnected disciplines that collectively uphold confidence in the financial system, and creating an avenue for meaningful dialogue on how trust can be sustained in an era of rapid transformation.
   
   
8. What is abundantly clear through the prism of trust is that the future of banking can no longer be discussed separately from the future of audit, risk, compliance, governance, technology and talent. These are not separate conversations. They are part of the same operating system. And that operating system is now being tested as never before.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. We meet at a time when the global economy is once again facing turbulence beyond our borders. The crisis in the West Asia has showed us how quickly geopolitical events reverberate through energy markets, shipping routes, supply chains and inflation expectations, ultimately translating into mounting economic pressures for businesses and households alike.
   
   
2. For a small, open economy such as Malaysia, external shocks do not remain external for long. This is why resilience must be built well before the storm hits the harbour.
   
   
3. In recent discussions on Malaysia's capital markets, I made the point that there is value in being, in the best sense of the word, boring. Not dull. Not stagnant. But dependable.
   
   
4. In finance, 'boring' is often misunderstood. It does not mean passive. It means the system works when the world does not. It means obligations are honoured, rules are clear, institutions are credible and confidence is preserved. In each epoch defined by chaos, complexity and contradiction, stability, predictability and reliability become formidable strengths and the pillars upon which trust is built.
   
   
5. A trusted banking system may not always draw attention in good times. But in difficult times, it becomes one of the most important sources of confidence in the economy. When households are uncertain, they need to know that their savings are safe. When businesses face volatility, they need financial partners who understand cash flow, risk and resilience. When investors look at Malaysia, they need to see institutions that are well governed, well capitalised and anchored in prudence - institutions that inspire confidence and earn trust over the long-term.
   
   
6. Reliability therefore, is not the opposite of innovation. It is what allows innovation to endure. At the national level, Malaysia has been rebuilding its own ledger of credibility - entry by entry.
   
   
7. Under the Ekonomi MADANI framework, the direction of reform has been clear.
   
   
   • The fiscal deficit reduced from 6.4 percent of GDP in 2021 to 3.7 percent in 2025.
   • Inflation moderated from 3.4 percent in 2022 to 1.4 percent in 2025.
   • Approved investments reached RM426.7 billion in 2025 - the highest in Malaysia's history.
   • Targeted subsidy reform has freed up around RM15.5 billion in fiscal space for 2026.
   • Our IMD World Competitiveness Ranking rose from 23rd to 15th.
   • Sovereign ratings have been reaffirmed, and foreign central banks have increased their holdings of Malaysian Government Securities.
     
     
8. Each figure is not a trophy. It is a posted entry. Proof that the account is being managed, and that reform is not merely a slogan. It is a foundation upon which greater confidence and durable prosperity can be built.
   
   
9. Macro credibility alone is therefore not sufficient. We must convert credibility into sustained investment, investment into enterprise growth, enterprise growth into productivity, and productivity into better incomes, better jobs and stronger national capability. This is how reform produces its ripple effects across the economy.
   
   
10. Banks are not bystanders in Malaysia's economic transformation. They are the transmission system through which reform becomes investment, and investment becomes national capability. They channel savings into productive activity. They finance SMEs, mid-tier companies and large corporates. They support working capital, trade, infrastructure, housing, digitalisation and industrial expansion.
    
    
11. In good times and bad, this role rests on the same foundation: trust, reliability, and amanah. It is what the ledger has always been meant to represent.
    
    
12. Malaysia's national priorities are clear - through the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030), the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR), the National Semiconductor Strategy (NSS), the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, and our green energy and semiconductor ambitions. These opportunities require financing, project structuring, sustainability finance, Islamic finance, private credit and risk management. They require a financial sector that can match the complexity of the economy we are trying to build.
    
    
13. This brings us to artificial intelligence. AI is already reshaping finance. It is being used in credit assessment, fraud detection, customer engagement, market surveillance, internal audit, compliance, cyber security, risk modelling and operational efficiency. The opportunity is significant. AI can help banks reach underserved segments, improve the speed and accuracy of decision-making, and strengthen early-warning systems.
    
    
14. But we should also be clear-eyed. AI is a tool -powerful, transformative, but ultimately dependent on human judgement and oversight. The more intelligent the ledger becomes, the more vigilant we must be in safeguarding it against emerging risks and vulnerabilities.
    
    
15. According to BNM's 2025 Annual Report, Malaysians lost RM2.8 billion to financial scams in 2024. Ninety-five percent of those cases were authorised transactions - meaning the victims manipulated by increasingly sophisticated social engineering. They were deceived and willingly transferred money. This is not a technology failure. It is a trust failure.
    
    
16. And it tells us something crucial: the greatest risk in an AI-enabled financial system is not necessarily the machine making a wrong decision. It is the human being manipulated into making a wrong one.
    
    
17. Financial scams today are more personalised, more convincing and increasingly enabled by digital tools. Social engineering, mule accounts, impersonation, phishing, synthetic identities and AI-generated deception are testing the ability of financial institutions to protect customers and preserve confidence. Banks must be able to innovate and detect abnormal patterns, strengthen authentication, protect vulnerable customers and respond quickly.
    
    
18. Trust is not built only through customer service or brand reputation. It is built through systems that work, controls that hold, and institutions that act before damage spreads.
    
    
19. The AI Governance Framework developed by AICB's Chief Risk Officers' Forum - with BNM's support and the endorsement of the Association of Banks in Malaysia - is exactly the kind of industry-led initiative that this moment requires. It is not Government telling banks how to use AI. It is the banking profession governing itself. That is how trust is built from within a system, not merely imposed upon it.
    
    
20. Internal audit, risk and compliance can no longer be treated as back-office brakes on innovation. In an AI-enabled financial system, they are part of the trust architecture. They help ensure that models are explainable, data is reliable, controls are effective, risks are understood, and boards have the confidence to govern technology rather than merely approve it.
    
    
21. Sustainability asks us to widen the ledger. For banks, sustainability cannot be treated as a reporting exercise. It must shape how capital is allocated, how risks are assessed, how clients are supported and how long-term value is created. Malaysia's energy transition, green industrial parks, renewable corridors and semiconductor ecosystem will all require financing - but also discipline: credible transition plans, reliable data, proper risk assessment and safeguards against greenwashing.
    
    
22. Here too, AI can play an important role in assessing climate exposure, monitoring supply chains, identifying transition risks and supporting more granular decision-making. The future of sustainable finance will depend not only on better tools, but on better governance, better assurance and better professional judgement.
    
    
23. That brings me to people, and to something more fundamental than talent pipelines or certification frameworks.
    
    
24. A ledger exists to serve the people whose lives it records - the farmer who needs credit, the family saving for a home, the entrepreneur who needs someone to believe in their idea before anyone else does.
    
    
25. AI does not change that. Neither does digitalisation, automation, or whatever comes next. The question they cannot answer for us is the oldest one in banking: who do we serve, and how well are we serving them?
    
    
26. As our tools become more capable, we must become more intentional about what it means to be humane. To exercise judgement, not just process data. To see a customer, not just a risk score. To ask not only whether a decision is algorithmically optimal, but whether it was fair.
    
    
27. The sector will need professionals who understand not only finance, but also data, behavioural risk, model governance, sustainability and ethics. But above all, we will need bankers who remember that behind every account, every application, every data point - there is a person. That is not a soft sentiment. It is the foundation on which this entire industry rests.
    
    
28. This is where AICB's role becomes especially important.
    
    
29. As AI becomes more embedded in finance, the future workforce will need to combine human judgment with machine intelligence, guided by ethical leadership, accountability and a culture of responsible innovation. A resilient banking system depends not only on sound regulation, capital strength and technological capability. It also depends on people.
    
    
30. The institutions that succeed will not simply be those with the most advance systems, but those with people who can govern complexity, exercise judgement and act with integrity. Investment in talent must be seen as part of the sector's core infrastructure. A banking system cannot be future-ready if its people are not.
    
    
31. Through its professional standards, qualifications, leadership development and industry platforms, AICB provides that important channel through which this capability can be built at scale, supporting a banking workforce that is capable, adaptable and trusted.
    
    
32. The Government, the regulator, the industry and the professional bodies each have a role. None can succeed alone. But the thread that connects all of them is the same thread that has always run through the best of banking: service to people, conducted with integrity.

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. When we speak of the future of finance, it is easy to be drawn to the language of speed: faster payments, faster approvals, faster analytics, faster decisions. But speed is only one measure of progress. A financial system must also be fair, secure and trusted. It must allocate capital to productive uses, help businesses grow, help households plan, and help the economy transform.
   
   
2. The ledger may now be digital, automated and intelligent. But its oldest entry remains unchanged: trust.
   
   
3. If we preserve that trust as the currency of the future - strengthen it, and adapt it for a new era - then the future of finance will be more sophisticated, resilient, inclusive and worthy of the people and businesses it is meant to serve.
   
   
4. In doing so, we will be able to realise the promise of intelligent finance for generations to come: a financial system that is not only technologically advanced, but inherently trusted, responsibly governed, and firmly grounded in human values.
   
   
5. On that note, I wish all of you a productive and meaningful Malaysian Banking Conference and Bank Audit Conference at AICB Nexus 2026.

Thank you.