number of our population being left out of the banking system is that it discourages the culture of saving and removes the un - banked population from the formal structure of the financial system. this ultimately leads to reduced funds being available in the economy for investment purposes. mr chairman sir, the opening of mazabuka stanbic branch is therefore particularly significant because it will not only address the problem of catering for the un - banked population, but also tap the tremendous business growth potential that this town offers. the expansion of the zambia sugar plc operations and the anticipated opening of the nickel mine around munali hills will all make a significant impact in boosting the living standards and job opportunities for the community of this town and the surrounding areas. besides, mazabuka is a successful and expanding farming district. i therefore wish to take this opportunity, to extend my congratulations and good wishes, to the board, management and staff of stanbic bank for the excellent business foresight in having decided to make mazabuka the new location of your latest branch. mr. chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the bank of zambia, has on a number of occasions indicated that the cost of banking services is relatively high in zambia as compared to our neighbouring countries. this contention has been backed by studies conducted by the bank of zambia whose results have been communicated to commercial banks. as such, we take this opportunity to implore commercial banks to reduce their lending rates and service charges in order to encourage greater economic activity. with these few words, ladies and gentlemen, i declare stanbic bank mazabuka branch officially open. i thank you.

jean - claude trichet : the financial crisis and the response of the ecb speech by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, at the ceremony conferring the honorary title of doctor honoris causa at the university of national and world economy, sofia, 12 june 2009. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is a great privilege for me to be here in sofia today to accept an honorary doctorate from the distinguished university of national and world economy ( unwe ), bulgaria ’ s most respected economics institute. to properly mark the occasion, i would like to talk about the global financial crisis and its roots, and the ecb ’ s response to the crisis. the global financial crisis and its roots let me start by briefly highlighting the origins and evolution of the current crisis. imagine a neutral observer who looked at the financial sector about a decade ago and then didn ’ t look at it again until the eve of the current financial crisis. he would have found a completely different financial industry, one which over the past decade has undergone a dramatic shift of focus. he would have discovered a financial system that had moved away from its traditional role of supporting trade and real investment. he would have found a financial system in which speculation and financial gambling had run rife. he would have encountered a system transformed – a system no longer managing genuine economic risks but one actually creating and assuming financial risks – risks resulting from arbitrage and intentional exposure to asset price changes. that same observer would have realised that financial liberalisation and innovation had made our economies more productive. the securitisation of assets, for example, had great potential to diversify economic risks and to manage them efficiently. but it also meant that financial institutions were able to sell loans or take them off the balance sheet, which weakened lenders ’ incentives to conduct prudent screening and constant monitoring of credit risk. so underwriting standards and lending oversight declined, and contributed to the excessive credit growth in the second half of the 1990s. in sum, the observer would have concluded that the factors that fuelled the credit and asset price boom of the past decade also created the conditions for a bust. in mid - 2007 we started to see the backlash. the start of the financial turmoil was sudden but not unexpected. the financial system as it worked over the past decade – with its flawed incentives and its overly complex products and with global imbalances as its macroeconomic backdrop – was no longer sustainable. the asset cycle turned