in 2011 a framework in which thai baht liquidity could be provided by the bank of thailand against jgbs and the yen as collateral. a similar arrangement was established with the monetary authority of singapore in 2014, and agreed upon in principle with bank indonesia in 2013. as shown on slide 7, under such arrangements, the central bank in a host country – in this case, the bank of thailand – provides liquidity in its own currency to banks against jgbs as collateral. the boj plays the role of a custodian to receive jgb collateral from those banks. all these arrangements allow eligible banks – both japanese banks and other banks operating in respective countries – to obtain liquidity in local currencies from central banks to which jgbs are submitted as eligible collateral. thus, those banks have additional sources of local currencies from local central banks under stressed funding conditions. such arrangements are beneficial to their customers ( e. g., firms ), which will be able to maintain stable borrowings in local currencies from their banks. in sum, financial cooperation with central banks in asia will contribute to the stability of financial systems as well as development of our economies. it also can be regarded as an important cornerstone for the boj to germinate its initiatives to ensure the ubiquity of jgbs. b. t + 1 project for jgb settlement the boj also has been working with market participants to improve the safety of jgb settlement. for example, we implemented online processing of jgb settlement as early as 1990. we also embarked on various initiatives including a delivery - versus - payment ( dvp ) mechanism in which a delivery of securities takes place if, and only if, payment occurs. lastly, we have collaborated closely with market participants to introduce a central counterparty ( ccp ) for jgb transactions. as for the latter, the japan securities clearing corporation ( jscc ), after a merger with the japan government bond clearing corporation ( jgbcc ) in october 2013, has become a ccp for jgb cash transactions, in which it plays the role of a buyer to every seller as well as the role of a seller to every buyer. thus, the jscc provides guarantees for jgb settlements even in the case of a default by market participants. in the course of advancing measures to improve the safety and efficiency of jgb settlements, the collaboration between the boj and market participants has been one of the most

. improvement in retail payment services : 24 / 7 services and financial edi the last initiative that i want to mention is the improvement of retail payment services. we are particularly interested in two issues. first, whether to realize real - time payments between end users on a 24 / 7 basis ; second, to enhance linkage between remittance information with payment information to achieve financial electronic data interchange ( edi ). 1. 24 / 7 services as for the 24 / 7 services in retail payments, let me step back and explain where we currently stand in japan. as you can see on slide 12, the zengin system, which is at the core of the japanese payment system, has long been regarded worldwide as one of the most advanced systems in the field of retail payment. it already allows for near real - time payment services during the daylight hours of working days. more recently, however, some countries, including singapore in our region, have developed 24 / 7 retail services. these offer near real - time payment services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ; hence, they are known as 24 / 7 services. we also have seen similar services being offered in countries like the united kingdom and sweden. in light of such progress in overseas economies, it has become a must in japan to elevate bank transfers to a comparable level of convenience and efficiency in terms of service availability. this would ensure smooth operation of retail payment services to underpin business and household activities. 2. financial edi slide 13 presents another issue that we are interested in : realizing financial edi. as you know, businesses have started to electronically exchange remittance information, such as purchases and sales orders, by taking advantage of internet technologies. an arrangement to link such remittance information with payment information – namely, information related to a beneficiary ’ s bank account and the payment date – and to exchange both remittance information and payment information together is called financial edi. bis central bankers ’ speeches the question is : what is the benefit to businesses in adopting financial edi? in the short run, they incur costs associated with developing it systems that accommodate standardized formats to exchange data electronically. however, in the medium to long run, they can enjoy the benefits of raising the efficiency of their operation. for example, firms will be able to automate the reconciliation of payment information with remittance information ; thus, they no longer need to rely on manually processing accounts receivable. looking at