The financial services industry is going through a period of extraordinary transformation. After centuries in which pen, paper and physical cash ruled banking interactions, digital technology is now bringing a new level of analysis, connectivity and transaction power literally to customers’ finger tips. 

These changes have happened in just the last few years – and they serve a new generation of customers, who have grown up in the digital world. They demand convenient services and new ways of accessing them, wherever and whenever they want. They need agile, rapid services operating in real time that are competitively priced and personalised. All of this needs to happen in a safe environment, where their data is protected. 

Microsoft has released regional findings from their global Security Intelligence Report (SIR), Volume 22, which found that Malaysia is one of the countries with a growing malware encounter. 

As per the findings, an approximate average of 12.9% of computers running on Microsoft real-time security products in Malaysia reported a malware encounter in the first quarter of 2017. This is slightly higher than the global average of nine percent. In addition, the report also found a significant decline in Malaysia’s malware occurrences compared to Q1 2016. The malware encounter rate fell by 16.7% percentage points compared to last year. 

Domestic demand remains the primary driver of Asia’s growth, despite sharp acceleration in exports growth at the start of the year, according to ICAEW’s latest Economic Insight: South-East Asia report. Exports continue to be an important factor, as healthy foreign trade underpins domestic consumption and investment, particularly in East Asia. 

The region enjoyed robust GDP growth for the first half of 2017, driven mainly by domestic demand. In many countries, the contribution of net external trade to headline GDP growth was negative and was outpaced by import growth. Asia’s supply chain mechanisms and resilient domestic demand are likely to lead to import growth as exports and overall growth improve.