of that assessment. yes, there was a tightening in lending standards from 2014 onwards. but through the first part of this, housing lending continued to grow at a fast pace. there was some further tightening over 2018 following the royal commission, mostly through stronger enforcement of existing policies. but the bulk of the tightening had preceded that. credit growth started to slow materially in mid 2017 ( graph 10 ). investor demand has slowed to such an extent that the stock of outstanding credit to investors has actually fallen in recent months. in my view this is primarily a decrease in investor demand given falling housing prices, more than the impact of tighter lending conditions. https : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2019 / sp - dg - 2019 - 10 - 17. html 13 / 17 10 / 17 / 2019 housing and the economy | speeches | rba graph 10 throughout, competition for high - quality borrowers with standard loan applications has remained strong. in the end, it is difficult to separate the effect of demand and supply, but this strong competition suggests there is more of a demand than a supply story. we are seeing a number of borrowers taking advantage of this competition by refinancing to lower rates. this, along with continued switching from interest only to principal and interest loans, amounts to a reduction in variable mortgage rates paid of around a basis point per month. there is still plenty of scope for more of this to occur, given that the interest rate on a new loan is some 30 basis points below the average outstanding rate for owner - occupiers. this brings me to the question of what will happen now that mortgage rates have declined. following the recent 75 basis point reduction in the cash rate, on average, variable mortgage rates have declined by around 60 basis points. interest rates are historically low. will we see a material increase in borrowing as a result? while turnover in the housing market remains low, credit growth is likely to remain low, even as prices pick up. households may be more conservative in their willingness to borrow given low income growth. lenders are applying tighter standards than in the past. both of these may well combine to result in a more muted pick - up in lending than in the past. https : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2019 / sp - dg - 2019 - 10 - 17. html 14 / 17 10 / 17 / 2019 housing and the economy | speeches | rba loan approvals

in urban and rural areas. awareness is growing that access to a wider set of financial services provides poor people with capacity to increase or stabilize their income, build assets and have much greater resilience to economic shocks. appropriate and affordable savings products, payment and money transfer services ( both domestic and international ) as well as insurance are all important. gender discrimination has excluded women who have toiled to provide and support financial needs through enterprising means but were stymied due to negligible access from the formal financial sector. bis central bankers ’ speeches at the same time, one billion people with mobile phones in the world do not even have a basic bank account. as the costs of information and communications technology shrink, the time is ripe to extend this technology to address financial exclusion. technological innovation impacts the cost and access equation – making it economically viable for financial service providers, to reach poor people, with a wider range of products and services. innovation also extends to new institutional approaches. increasing numbers of countries with large unbanked populations are pioneering policy and regulatory innovations that opens space for “ banking beyond branches ” with new approach to the delivery of formal financial services. this is allowing previously excluded customers the much needed access to an increasing range of basic financial services. pakistan has one of the lowest financial penetration levels in the world with 56 % of the adult population totally excluded, and another 32 % informally served. we are a country with a population of 180 million living in geographically diverse areas. mobile phone subscription has seen explosive growth in pakistan. in contrast, banking accounts are owned by approximately 30 million customers largely belonging to high income segments of the society. with a network of a little over 10, 500 bank branches, the coverage of branches is one of the lowest in the region. developing brick and mortar branches is a costly proposition. to encourage financial institutions to develop alternative delivery channels, sbp in 2008, introduced branchless banking ( bb ) regulations. the regulations are applicable to all commercial banks, islamic banks and microfinance banks in pakistan. these regulations have actually catalyzed in the deployment of a number of branchless banking initiatives that have a dual advantages : first, there is an enormous scope for expanding outreach, especially in the hard - to - reach rural areas. the emerging models relying on “ banking agents ” have greatly extended the distribution of financial services to the marginalized and deprived segments. second, alternative delivery channels promise significant cost reduction to institutions. due to these benefits, the expansion in the retail