re excited by the initiatives that you, the private sector, have taken to model the risks and transform the financial markets. i believe you can drive innovation and might even be able to provide a more significant lever to advance global change. however, at a time of rapid change it is also important to analyse innovation within the public sector so as not to create new risks. so therefore, we hope to continue our dialogue and work on this challenge together. or, in other words, as we are now in the ‘ grand ballroom ’ of the okura hotel : together, let us face the music and dance. let ’ s dance together! thank you.

alongside financial stability comes another topical issue in development debates across the globe, financial inclusion. for the financial system to be relevant to society, it needs to ensure that as much of the eligible target population has opportunity to access a variety of financial services ranging from credit, savings and payments, transfers, pensions, capital markets and insurance services. inclusion is an essential pre - condition to enhancing wealth creation and poverty reduction and ultimately broad based economic development. the consultative group to assist the poor ( cgap ) defines financial inclusion as a “ state in which all people who can are able to have access to a full suite of quality financial services, provided at affordable prices, in a convenient manner, and with dignity for the clients ”. these financial services are bis central bankers ’ speeches delivered by a range of providers, most of them private, and reach everyone who can use them, including disabled, poor, rural, and other excluded populations. ladies and gentlemen : why should we, as regulators, be concerned about the levels of financial inclusion in our respective jurisdictions? individuals and households lacking adequate access to a full range of responsibly delivered, affordably priced, convenient, formal financial services would be severely constrained in participating fully in the economy. as an entity, the financial sector would also face bleak prospects in terms of expansion and longevity, which holds back overall economic development. but more importantly, financial inclusion is supported by financial stability. in kenya, the proportion of the population totally excluded from formal financial services, as revealed by the finaccess 2006 and 2009 surveys, stood at 38. 3 % and 32. 7 % respectively. the proportionate reduction between the years is largely attributable to the advent of mobilebased financial services which have indeed revolutionized the provision of formal financial services and availed these to the market affordably and conveniently. for us to bring costs of financial services down, we need full inclusion. ladies and gentlemen : given the statistics above, as financial sector regulators, we share common aspirations of making the financial sector more stable, efficient and accessible. though these objectives may at times appear competing, they are for the most part complementary. stability is a pre - requisite for efficiency, while both are in turn required to raise inclusion. in cognizance of this, the central bank, jointly with other players, has undertaken several initiatives and reforms aimed at boosting overall inclusion. these include : licensing of deposit taking microfinance institutions ( dtms ), focusing