Other financial service needs expected by individual customers to be on the rise are the use of ATM and life assurance, while more uses of phone banking and Internet banking, provident fund management and cash management are expected by corporate customers. Unattractive aspects of financial institutions that drive customers away from using their financial services Although financial institutions, especially banks, are still the main financial service providers to consumers in Thailand, there are some aspects of their services considered not so user-friendly, such as: •  complicated procedures and long period of time for getting credit approved;  •  inconvenient access to the services;  •  inflexibility in the terms and conditions of repayment; and  •  the emphasis of banks on collateral instead of repayment ability. 2. Social aspects of retail banking sector  As you can see, these findings show that there are some gaps of the underserved to be filled in the financial sector, and retail banking is an area of potential growth. Moreover, we regulators believe that the consideration in retail banking sector extends above and beyond profit making for service providers and systemic stability because excess in this sector not only exacerbates a boom and bust cycle of credit, but also causes financial distress to over-leveraged consumers, triggering more social problems. Therefore, with profit-making comes responsibility - banks should be responsible for consumer education programs as well, disclosing information such as interest charges and fees of financial services.

With several layers of service providers, risk increases while at the same time becoming more difficult to uncover. In 2015, Norges Bank will evaluate the outsourced operations of key participants in the financial infrastructure in Norway. This assessment, too, will be based on international principles. 8 A fundamental prerequisite is that the owners of systems have the ultimate responsibility for operation. This responsibility also covers backup solutions. The owners’ responsibility does not change because all or parts of system operation are managed by others. Owners must therefore retain sufficient expertise in-house. Both for the system owner and the authorities, the ability to set requirements and follow up activities is more of a challenge the more remote they are. When parts of the financial infrastructure are operated outside of Norway, system owners should implement special measures to address these additional challenges. A situation must be avoided where infrastructure critical to Norway is affected by incidents in other countries. Norges Bank will give weight to these considerations in its supervisory role. Contingency preparedness The consequences of disruptions in a payment system may be more serious for society than for the individual operator. For that reason, the authorities set strict requirements for contingency preparedness. Contingency arrangements shall both reduce the likelihood of incidents and mitigate the consequences if an incident has occurred. The requirements for contingency preparedness may entail increased costs in the short term. In the longer term, adequate contingency preparedness is crucial for society. This is reflected in the trade-offs between long-term risk and short-term costs.