the past year, our banking sector in particular, and the financial sector in general, have registered consistent growth, profitability and strength. we are all delighted that the mauritius commercial bank now figures among the top 20 banks in subsaharan africa : this sets a new standard in the field. i am mentioning this en passant to encourage the new bank to be ambitious and set its sights high. we look forward to the day when the bramer banking corporation will pass this post too. just don ’ t take that long to get there! the fresh wind of islamic banking is also keeping us all on our toes. we have moved fast from idea to action. we have consulted far and wide. we have issued guidelines. we have joined the international standard - setting body for islamic banking. we have invited applications. we have processed them. and, tonight, i am pleased to announce that a few days ago we issued our first two “ in principle ” approvals for full - fledged islamic banking licences. as they say, watch this space for a further announcement! in the meantime, we are pressing ahead with our plans to roll out sharia - compliant treasury products before these first two banks open their doors – and others open their windows – for islamic banking business. very often, when we discuss the performance of the banking industry, whether conventional or islamic, we tend to focus on issues of profitability, capital adequacy, asset quality and so forth. we tend to forget the “ people ” issues. do you know, for example, that our banks have a combined total of 2 million deposit accounts? that is an average of 1. 55 accounts by head of population, man, woman and child included. do you know that we have 180, 185 credit cards in issue? that makes 150 cards per 1, 000 inhabitants. do you know that everyday, we issue an average of 21, 160 cheques? and did you know that at last june, the sector employed 6, 100 people? and that was mostly in white - collar jobs? and that employment has been growing at a compound rate of nearly 15 per cent per year over the last two years? that makes it one of the fastest growing sectors in the country. the bank of mauritius keeps a watchful eye over all this and makes sure that it keeps ticking over nicely, oiling the wheels of trade, commerce, and financial transactions. consumers, borrowers, lenders, depositors, importers, exporters

ajith nivard cabraal : overview of financial and economic developments in sri lanka keynote address by mr ajith nivard cabraal, governor of the central bank of sri lanka, at the opening of the financial services academy at the centre for banking studies, rajagiriya, 5 march 2007. * * * ladies and gentlemen : today we all have gathered here to witness an important step towards the development of the financial landscape and knowledge pool of the country, the establishment of the financial services academy, a landmark organization that we hope, would shape the future of our financial services industry. as we know, the sri lankan economy recorded a growth of 7. 8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2006 and according to current available data, it is very likely that the economic growth in 2006 would be well over 7 per cent. this will be the highest since 1978. towards such growth, the contribution of the services sector was easily the highest and of such high growth sector, the growth in financial services was highly significant. it is therefore widely acknowledged that the contribution of the financial sector for the achievement of growth of the country is enormous, and whatever we do in that connection, would be of overall immense value. the developments in the financial sector also helps the economic growth through several other channels as well : it improves the efficiency of business processes, attracts investment, reduces unemployment and enhances access to finance, to name a few. we are happy that during the recent years, our financial sector has also improved in every respect. this is clearly evident when we look around the financial institutions, financial markets and the developments in financial infrastructure. within the last five years, assets of the licensed banks in the country doubled. altogether, there has been an addition of over 400 branches of these banks. other financial institutions including registered finance companies, leasing companies, insurance companies, merchant banks, venture capital firms and unit trusts have also grown in sympathy with the banking sector. at the same time, we have also progressed rapidly in the financial infrastructure developments as well. this is particularly visible with the leap forward in the payment system development as evidenced by the implementation of a real time gross settlement system in 2003. now, 84 per cent of the value of country ’ s payments are settled through the rtgs system. in 2006, we completed the cheque image truncation project, reducing the maximum cheque clearance time to 2 working days, which is another significant achievement. the colombo stocks exchange remains one of the most technically advanced