yandraduth googoolye : e - payment developments in mauritius keynote address by mr yandraduth googoolye, first deputy governor of the bank of mauritius, at a visa briefing on the economic benefits of e - payments, port louis, 8 october 2008. * * * good morning i am indeed glad to be here to share a few thoughts on the importance of electronic payment system for economic development. there is no doubt that the advent of electronic payment system has resulted in numerous benefits for consumers and suppliers in both developed and developing economies. empirically, it has been established that increased use of credit cards is positively co - related with economic growth and exports. in mauritius, the growth of e - payments, which cover the entire spectrum of use of the electronic media for settling transactions and would hence include among others, credit and debit cards, internet banking and mobile banking, has been tremendous. we, thus, had 382 atms in july 2008 as against 334 a year before and 293 in june 2005. the number of transactions using credit and debit cards went up from 3 million in june 2007 to 3. 7 million in july 2008 while the aggregate value of monthly transactions increased from about rs 5 billion to rs 6. 8 billion during this period. more than 1. 1 million credit and debit cards were in circulation at the end of july 2008, an average of more than one card per head of adult population. a few banks are already offering internet banking facilities while some others are in various stages of doing so. it is heartening to note that the use of electronic media is spreading to many other types of transactions rather than being confined to purchase of goods and services at points of sale, withdrawal of cash and to put through transactions on the b2c portals. thus, for instance, this year mra allowed on line payment of taxes through select banks which, coupled with efiling of tax returns, is a major step forward. the central bank has the responsibility of maintaining the stability of the payments and financial system. the bank of mauritius operates and manages mauritius automated clearing and settlement system which is the communication backbone for inter - bank settlements and for the real time gross settlement. we also play an enabling role by adopting a positive, though cautious, approach to development of e - payments in the country. the orderly development of any segment of financial sector would require sound regulatory framework. the present approach requires financial institutions under its purview to seek the bank ’ s

. as you are aware, september end is a tax payment time and around this period importers start procuring goods for year end sales. to ease the situation, the bank of mauritius intervened both in the rupee market by conducting repo transactions in quick succession and on the foreign exchange market by selling foreign exchange and our last intervention was on 6 october when we sold usd20 million. thus, the bank of mauritius will continue to play an effective role whether in the orderly operations of the financial markets or ensuring the safety and soundness of the financial system or for that matter the development of e - payments in the country. thank you all for your attention.