banks to withdraw cash. the government presented a bill for a new financial institutions act before summer. the bill states that banks will have an obligation to accept cash from customers and make deposits available to customers in the form of cash. this is a further specification of banks ’ responsibility for cash handling. the bill also gives banks the freedom to choose how services are to be organised, as long as they are able to meet customer demand. conclusion let me sum up : the norwegian payment system is efficient and up - to - date. it gives the nation a competitive advantage over many other countries. the owners must have management systems that enable them to have sound control of operations. the owners ’ responsibility also includes backup solutions. this responsibility does not change if all or parts of operations are managed by others. payments can become cheaper, faster and more user - friendly than they are at present. banks should price payments so that they achieve acceptable earnings and promote profitable investments. this will also serve the interest of customers. it is of benefit to us, as a society, that banks and other operators are now investing in secure and forward - looking solutions. the aim must be to remain at the forefront of international developments. there is growing urgency to put in place new solutions. in this respect, the system owners – the banks – have collective interests that go beyond pure private financial considerations of the individual bank. thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

area, sweden, the uk, australia, japan and switzerland. one risk factor is that inflation in the us and the euro area may be higher than expected. in the event, interest rates internationally are likely to rise more than the current outlook would imply and curb growth among our trading partners. in the past two years, oil prices have doubled, measured in usd. with little spare production capacity, even minor disruptions in supply or demand can have a relatively strong impact on prices. it is likely that global growth will remain buoyant. this may contribute to keeping oil prices at a high level. recently, oil prices have been around usd 70 per barrel. brent blend futures prices have also climbed and indicate that oil prices will remain high for several years to come. prices for a number of other commodities – including natural gas and some metals – have also risen sharply in recent years. so far, high oil prices have not led to slower growth in the world economy. however, there is a risk that rising or persistently high oil prices may gradually curb growth among important trading partners. in its june inflation report, norges bank assumed that money market rates among our trading partners would rise gradually over the next three years. the path for domestic and external interest rates does not imply considerable changes in the krone exchange rate. given solid global growth, demand for goods and services from norwegian export companies may remain at a high level. a growing number of export companies are facing capacity constraints, particularly in the production of metals and refined petroleum products. export growth in the years ahead will probably occur in industries such as the engineering and shipbuilding industries. production growth is now high in these industries and employment is rising after declining over several years. capacity utilisation in the norwegian economy is now higher than normal. strong global growth is supporting both high demand and favourable prices for the norwegian export sector. although petroleum investment is likely to peak this year, prospects of persistently high oil prices will contribute to continued strong demand from the petroleum sector. high oil prices also generate substantial central government revenues and there are prospects of strong growth in the government pension fund – global in the next few years. this means that spending in line with the fiscal rule will lead to an increase in the structural, non - oil central government budget deficit. we assume that fiscal policy will provide some stimulus to aggregate demand and output in 2008 and 2009. a gradual increase in the interest rate will curb demand growth after a period. household debt and house prices have increased markedly