cit..  11  In 1992, Governor Leigh-Pemberton gave a lecture entitled: “The case for price stability”. As well as reviewing the costs of inflation, the lecture reprised the early-1980s debate on the rate of inflation the authorities should settle for (see Note 9), in a section entitled “Why not settle for 5%?”. These issues were also the centrepiece of the Bank’s tercentenary conference in 1994 on the future of central banking. See Fischer, S, “Modern Central Banking”, in Capie F., C. Goodhart, S. Fischer and N. Schnadt (eds. ), 1994, The Future of Central Banking: The Tercentenary Symposium of the Bank of England, Cambridge University Press. See also Briault, C., 1995, “The costs of inflation”, Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, February. And Haldane, A. (ed. ), 1995, Targeting Inflation: a conference of central banks on the use of inflation targets organised by the Bank of England, March. 2  BIS Review 66/2007  just an end in itself but a precondition for macroeconomic stability more generally: for sustainable growth in output and employment and, thus, for the “good things in life”. A precondition, but not a sufficient condition. The Bank took care to stress that, however effective, monetary policy could not deliver economic prosperity on its own. It was a necessary condition. And it could avoid the costs of inflation, including random and unacceptable redistributions of wealth between savers and borrowers resulting from unexpected surges in inflation caused by the authorities choosing to loosen monetary conditions.

Despite the facilities offered by these money transfer systems, there still remains a significant portion of remittances of un-skilled workers that are not captured by the formal money transfer systems. Enabling regulatory environment An enabling regulatory environment is necessary to enhance cross-border remittance transfers. While recognizing the need to deter money laundering and terrorist financing through cross-border transfers, laws relating to this type of activities should not discourage genuine remittance flows through the banking system. Nor should they be discriminatory or prohibitive to remitters or receivers. Most countries with fully open current and capital accounts have facilitated cross-border transfers than the countries with capital controls. The situation is expected to be improved with the relaxation of exchange controls in both the remittance originating country and the recipient country. There is also a need to monitor and regulate the agencies and other service providers which recruit migrant workers. It is reported that, in some instances, the agencies tend to persuade migrant workers to go for lower wages and salaries or employ them under harsh working conditions. There have also been instances where the agencies or agents take money upfront from workers and have left them in the lurch. Remittances through informal channels According to estimates, still 30–40 percent of remittances are transferred through the informal institutional networks and private channels. In some instances, informal systems do not transfer foreign currency from the origin/host country to the recipient/home country. Arrangements are made to provide funds in local currency at the recipient's end.