reserve bank of fiji keynote address by the reserve bank of fiji governor, mr ariff ali south pacific central banking research conference, 12 december 2018, holiday inn, suva your excellency, ms amy crago, australian deputy high commissioner to fiji ; mr loi bakani, governor, bank of papua new guinea ; mr denton rarawa, governor, central bank of solomon islands ; deputy governors and fellow central bankers ; members of the griffith university faculty ; distinguished guests and participants ; ladies and gentlemen ; bula vinaka! it is indeed an honor for me to give the keynote address in this inaugural south pacific central banking research conference, co - hosted by griffith university and the central banks of papua new guinea, solomon islands, vanuatu and fiji. in fact, i am delighted that we central bankers in the pacific have taken this bold step to strengthen our research capacity, which is evident by the high - level attendance today, of representative central banks from the region. our being here also demonstrates our sincere appreciation of the commitment of griffith university and the australian government to assist in the research capacity of our pacific central banks. reserve bank of fiji i wish to congratulate dr pramendra sharma and the team from griffith university for convening this conference, an ultimate outcome of some years of dedicated work to highlight the research initiatives of our pacific central bankers and provide a platform for dialogue, information sharing and future research opportunities. deputy governor masitabua has welcomed us all last night so i do not wish to repeat his welcome, but i only wish to mention that the reserve bank of fiji is indeed privileged to co - host this inaugural conference and we look forward to fruitful deliberations in the next two days. collaboration with griffith university ladies and gentlemen, i wish to share at the outset a brief background of our journey with griffith university. the griffith - south pacific central banks ( spcbs ) partnership with the support of the australian government has come a long way, from one joint - working paper with the rbf in 2014 to almost 25 published and partially completed working papers amongst the four central banks represented here today. we have indeed proven ourselves as worthy partners with griffith university, and we can only expect bigger and better outcomes from this great partnership. i understand that one joint - paper under this collaboration has been published in the “ review of pacific basin financial markets and policies ”, a prestigious academic journal in singapore, and another has been accepted for publication in the “ journal of the asia

reserve should provide a new payment and settlement service, as it should be. we have carefully analyzed the criteria of the monetary control act and long - standing federal reserve policies, considered the comments provided by a wide range of stakeholders, and studied the experiences of foreign central banks. 7 we are not making this decision lightly. on balance, after carefully weighing important considerations on both sides, we have concluded it is our responsibility to take action in support of a real - time payment infrastructure accessible to all. while we will work hard to stand up the fednow service in a timely manner, our most important goal is to achieve nationwide access for all, reflecting our public mission. building a modern payment infrastructure a key foundation of the payment infrastructure is interbank clearing and settlement — the movement of funds and the associated information between banks. today, the u. s. retail payment infrastructure lags behind many other countries. europe, mexico, and australia have already implemented real - time interbank clearing and settlement capabilities. in contrast, here in the united states, the gap between the transaction capabilities in the digital economy and the underlying payment and settlement capabilities continues to grow. 8 early adopters of fast payment services rely on a legacy infrastructure that was not designed to support faster payments. for example, some services offer real - time funds availability to certain consumers, but they conduct interbank settlement on a deferred basis using legacy systems. this type of settlement entails a buildup of obligations — like ious between banks — that could present real risks to the financial system in times of stress. these are not resilient long - term solutions for our dynamic economy and the banks that support it. we are seeing some companies looking to establish a payment system that bypasses our banks and our currency. facebook's libra project raises numerous concerns that will take time to assess and address. but one thing is clear : consumers and businesses across the country want and expect real - time payments, and the banks they trust should be able to provide this service securely — whatever their size. to provide everyone with the ability to send and receive funds securely on a 24x7x365 basis, banks need to embrace and invest in real - time innovations, and the federal reserve needs to provide a safe and efficient real - time interbank clearing and settlement service accessible to all banks. we are proud of our strong record of cooperating with and supporting private - sector services, while fostering competition for public benefit. we have provided vital support