ipumbu shiimi : credit information sharing in namibia welcoming remarks by mr ipumbu shiimi, governor of the bank of namibia, at the launch of the namibia data sharing alliance, bank of namibia, windhoek, 2 march 2015. * * * director of ceremony dr prega ramsamy, ceo of finmark trust mr phillip shiimi, ceo of namfisa mr darrel beghin, executive director, credit provider association of sa mr grant phillips, ceo africa regions, transunion mr frank lenisa, director, compuscan representatives of lending institutions, distinguished invited guests, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the bank of namibia! it is my singular honour and pleasure to join you this morning at this occasion to mark the launch of the namibia data sharing alliance. as you may recall, on 19 august 2013, i officiated at the credit information sharing workshop held in windhoek organised by finmark trust. the purpose of the workshop was to explore potential approaches and actions that could improve the quality and flow of credit information in namibia for the benefit of credit providers and, ultimately, their consumers. that workshop paved the way for the establishment of namibia data sharing alliance, as a platform for credit information sharing among credit providers in namibia. what we are witnessing today is a beginning of an exciting journey for namibia in terms of credit information sharing. ladies and gentlemen, the launch of the ndsa comes at a time when the bank is in the process of implementing the regulatory framework for credit bureaus. as you may be aware, namibia did not previously have legislation for regulating credit bureaus. that position changed in august 2014 when the credit bureau regulations were gazetted. the regulations are meant to regulate the operations and conduct of credit bureaus, in order to ensure that credit information sharing is carried out within the confines of the law. as part of the provisions of the regulations, credit providers in namibia are now required to provide credit performance information to all registered credit bureaus. the purpose of this provision is to ensure that a complete picture of individual borrowers is obtained, to enable comprehensive affordability assessments to be done with a view to curb over indebtedness of customers. this is in line with the bank ’ s mandate of enhancing and maintaining stability in the financial sector. therefore, the broader objectives of the ndsa and the credit bureau regulations are complimentary in nature. ladies and gentlemen, the rate of a country ’

we have seen highly divergent borrowing costs for the real economy in different parts of the euro area. in our analysis, these differences were larger than justified by individual credit risk. they reflected, to a considerable extent, unfounded fears about the future of the euro area. for example, a loan to a family in germany for a house purchase with a five - to - ten - year maturity had an interest rate of 3 % ; the rate for a comparable borrower in spain was 7. 5 %. at the same time, the average firm in germany paid around 3 % for a new loan over five years, while the average firm in italy paid above 5. 5 %. in these circumstances, monetary policy cannot work properly. this is because a key channel through which the ecb ensures price stability is through the cost of credit, in particular bank credit. bank credit accounts for about 70 % of external financing of euro area firms, and that ratio is even higher for smaller enterprises. but if we are unable to influence borrowing costs in some parts of the euro area, this channel is disrupted. firms and households have less access to financing, economic growth stalls and these regions are faced with a risk of deflation. in other words, our ability to ensure price stability for the whole euro area is compromised. the ecb ’ s governing council therefore faced a choice : to accept this situation and allow the singleness of its monetary policy to be undermined ; or to take actions within its mandate to restore the normal transmission of monetary policy across all parts of the euro area. we decided in favour of the latter. our actions aim to repair monetary policy transmission through providing a credible backstop in government bond markets that removes unfounded fears and tail risks from the euro area. insofar as this supports investor confidence, it will help stabilise conditions in other markets, bis central bankers ’ speeches such as those for corporate and bank bonds. this ultimately feeds into more even borrowing costs for the real economy across the euro area. early signs suggest a positive effect. since the beginning of this month, euro area banks issued about 27 billion euros of new debt – the most since march of this year. some of these banks had not been able to access the market for almost six months previously. non - financial corporations have also issued around 43 billion euros of new bonds, the highest figure for five of the last six months. it is too early to tell the full impact of our measures on borrowing conditions for firms and