on risk management and investments in resilience. a key function of financial institutions is to help households and businesses manage the risks they face. financial institutions also have a responsibility to manage their own risks prudently so that they do not themselves become a source of uncertainty and instability. as canada's central bank, we have a role to play in mitigating and managing risks and uncertainty. our primary mandate is price stability - in other words, low, stable and predictable inflation. we also have mandates to foster a stable financial system and ensure safe and efficient payments. let me say a few words on financial stability and payments. and then i'll finish with some thoughts on monetary policy. our financial stability focus is on risks that could lead to system - wide stress. and we publish these findings in our annual financial stability report ( fsr ). 1 in our most recent fsr, published in may, we reported that canadian mortgage holders had experienced a modest increase in levels of financial stress. since then, we've observed that arrears on mortgages have continued to rise, although they remain below pre - pandemic levels. it also appears that these households have not leaned on revolving credit products such as lines of credit and credit cards to a greater degree than before the pandemic. but there is a notable increase in financial stress among borrowers without a mortgage, mainly renters. during the pandemic, for most credit products, the share of these borrowers missing payments reached historical lows. however, we're now seeing a larger share of these borrowers lagging behind on credit card and auto loan payments. over the past year the share of borrowers without a mortgage who carry a credit card balance of at least 90 % of their credit limit has continued to climb. and this share is now above typical historical levels. this is concerning. our responsibilities related to payments require us to adapt to increasing digitalization. innovation in payments continues to accelerate. in 2021, the bank assumed a new mandate for the supervision of retail payment service providers. starting november 1st of this year, more than 3, 000 service providers will need to register with the bank and follow new rules aimed at safeguarding consumers and protecting the integrity of retail payments. we are also looking at the bigger picture of payment innovation, both in canada and around the world. as part of this work, in the past few years we've built an extensive body of knowledge about the framework and technology behind

2014, the year - on - year rate of change in real wages has remained substantially negative as improvement in wages has not been able to keep up with the substantial price increases, which reflected the effects of the consumption tax hike. this seems to have led to consumers ’ defensive attitude toward spending, bringing about sluggishness in private consumption and weakness in the supply side ’ s price - setting stance, which until then was starting to show confidence. since the turn of fiscal 2015, the year - on - year rate of increase in the cpi ( all items less fresh food ) has been about 0 percent, but the nikkei - utokyo daily price index – which is mainly comprised of daily necessities and food products – has been trending upward, and there has been no sign so far that the trend in price rises will stall as it did last year. this indicates firms ’ aggressive stance of setting higher prices on the sales front, evidencing the resilience in private consumption. having said that, although the year - on - year rate of change in real wages – which greatly affects the sustainability of consumption – had recently been rising rapidly, it has just reached close to 0 percent. thus, i would like to pay attention to the future pace of improvement in real wages. in assessing developments in private consumption, consumption by pensioners warrants attention. with the aging of the population, the number of pensioners has reached close to bis central bankers ’ speeches 40 million, and the effects their behavior exert on overall private consumption have become significant. from a relatively longer - term perspective, a cut in real pension benefits, owing in part to the introduction of the macroeconomic slide formula, might exert downward pressure on pensioners ’ consumption. thus, i believe that even greater attention should be given to future developments. c. business fixed investment the third key is developments in business fixed investment. for part of 2014, growth in business fixed investment was sluggish relative to that in corporate profits and firms ’ fixed investment plans, partly due to the effects of the decline in demand following the front - loaded increase prior to the consumption tax hike and heightened uncertainty regarding developments in foreign exchange rates and crude oil prices. however, the rate of change in business fixed investment on a real gdp basis turned noticeably positive for the januarymarch quarter of 2015. thereafter, the june 2015 tankan showed that firm ’ s fixed investment plans have been relatively strong, particularly of large manufacturing firms, and