holding back growth. on the contrary, monetary policy is supporting higher spending by altering incentives as between spending and saving, and working to create an environment in asset and credit markets that eases the restraints on some sorts of activity. bis central bankers ’ speeches in the end, though, firms and individuals have to have the confidence to take advantage of that situation. they have to be willing to take a risk – on a new project, a new product, a new market, a new worker. monetary policy can ’ t force spending to occur. that is why the conduct of other policies is also important. the myriad things which can make it harder or easier for businesses to innovate, to change their ways of doing things, to avoid unnecessary costs and to be more productive, all matter. no single one is decisive in itself ; but collectively, they are crucial. it is hard to escape the feeling that we as a society have tended, for quite a long time now, to go about our decisions on such matters while making the assumption, perhaps without realising it, that solid growth of the economy will simply continue, and that it won ’ t be affected by these other choices of various kinds. we are at a moment now when that assumption has to be questioned. the path of pro - growth, pro - productivity, confidence - building reforms would mean that the basis for investment and growth in real incomes would improve. that would allow consumption to grow without recourse to excessive borrowing. it would provide a revenue base for governments to provide the services and infrastructure the community needs. and so on. the alternative path is a much less attractive one. before i conclude, a few words on payments and regulatory matters. as i mentioned at the february hearing the payments system board has been working to encourage industry to put in place the infrastructure to make real - time payments capability for the community a reality over the next few years. good progress has been made, though there is a long way to go. an early milestone was reached a few weeks ago when the settlement of direct entry payments, amounting to about $ 50 billion per day, moved to same - day settlement, as opposed to the previous practice of settling the next day. quite substantial changes to operational arrangements in the private sector, and in the reserve bank itself, were required to achieve this. but it was worth doing because it lowers risk in the system and helps faster access to funds. on financial regulation, the global effort at building a stronger framework continues

. the financial stability board has been clear about the priorities over the coming year, under the headings of implementation of basel iii changes, continuing towards completion of a regime for “ too big to fail ” financial institutions, making derivatives markets safer and making sure “ shadow banking ” activities have appropriate oversight. australia, as chair of the g20 this year, welcomes this prioritisation and has indicated that it supports the fsb as it seeks to achieve concrete results by the time of the leaders ’ meeting in brisbane next november. australian regulatory authorities continue, meanwhile, carefully to implement internationally agreed reforms, with due regard to local conditions. with those remarks, chair, we are here to respond to your questions. bis central bankers ’ speeches