pin has proved to be instrumental in reducing card fraud in the uk high street. the increase in card fraud losses in 2008 in uk was due, according to her, to uk card details being stolen and cloned for use in countries not yet upgraded to chip and pin. this brief overview gives you an indication of where we actually stand. i now return to the theme i want to address you today, the responsibilities of the central bank, financial institutions and consumers in fraud prevention. the bank of mauritius has a critical role to play in creating an environment where adequate standards are maintained. it establishes mr charles niehaus is the general manager, sub - saharan africa, visa international cemea region. expectations, norms and responsibilities through regulation. financial institutions on their part need to have adequate it systems and controls to address the risks in their businesses. they also need to provide access to relevant information to consumers of their financial products. informed consumers have the responsibility to protect themselves from the risks that they can best manage. bank of mauritius the bank of mauritius has the responsibility of maintaining the stability of the payments and financial system. this responsibility hinges on the orderly development and efficient functioning of the system. the bank has taken a number of initiatives to further modernize the payments system among which are the cheque truncation project, the implementation of the international bank identification number ( iban ) and the upgrading of the macss. the main objective of cheque truncation is to enable cheques to be exchanged and cleared on the basis of electronic presentment of cheque images and cheque micr codeline data. it provides a number of benefits : faster clearing cycles, faster cheque tracing and cost reduction, the most important one being operational risk reduction through enhanced security and automatic detection of forged instruments. our banks are increasingly engaging in cross border transactions and the bank of mauritius implemented the iban, which provides a secured and transparent means of international fund transfer via straight through processing ( stp ). with a view to furthering facilitation of cross border transactions in the region, the bank will be a participant and the settlement bank in the regional payment and settlement system ( repss ) of the comesa clearing house. the macss represents the main architecture for local electronic payments involving the bank of mauritius, banks, government and large taxpayers. this core application, which is based on international best practice, was recently replaced. it provides for advanced queue management for liquidity purposes, enhanced security, increased availability and

launched the extensible business reporting language ( xbrl ) project that will simplify data collection and reporting by banks and other regulated institutions while also facilitating in - depth and timely analysis at the bank. we have continued with process re - engineering and organisational restructuring to deliver on our extended mandate, to meet new challenges, and to incorporate new technology. in addition to the intelligence, compliance, and enforcement section mentioned earlier, we also set up a specialised unit for reserve management to serve as the nucleus for a middle office and risk management division which we created just after the period covered by this report. we re - jigged the economic research division and tasked it with developing our forecasting and modeling capacity to support our expected move to an explicit inflation targetingregime. none of these moves would have been possible without recruiting new staff, with the requisite experience, at an appropriate level in the bank ’ s hierarchy. already a technologyintensive industry, banking will become a battlefield for still more disruptive technologies in future. an ageing staff, with dated skills and outmoded work habits, will be hard - pressed to cope with the emerging challenges facing the regulator. we placed considerable emphasis on upgrading our in - house skills and recruiting new blood. we opened our doors to regular graduate interns two years ago. we followed it up this year by launching a graduate trainee programme which will allow the bank to spot potential new recruits, enhance its professional competence, and rejuvenate its workforce. the rupee goes polymer last august, the honourable prime minister launched our very first polymer bank notes, which have been in circulation since then. i am happy to say that two of the three polymer bank notes have received international recognition. the rs25 polymer bank note and the rs500 polymer bank note were shortlisted for their state - of - the - art security features at the international association of currency affairs 2014 technical excellence in currency awards. our rs25 bank note came out 2nd in this contest. i am pleased to say that our efforts to adhere to the highest standards in all business areas have paid dividends. words of appreciation i have always been guided by my sens du devoir in discharging the immense responsibility entrusted to me by the prime minister to lead the central bank of the country in the midst of challenging times for our economy and our people. it has not been an easy ride. my task would have been still more difficult, had i not received the support of the staff of the