international. innovations and partnerships in the mobile phone money transfer industry, as we are seeing today, have given impetus to access to financial services to kenyans. besides the revolutionary impact on financial systems, mobile phone technology has also provided access to services for the previously unbanked and created thousands of job opportunities. the provision of remittance services is a potentially effective method by which service providers can attract the unbanked for sending or receiving purposes. in this regard, it is an emerging market leadership platform to be consolidated for enhanced financial inclusion. distinguished guests : there has been tremendous growth in international remittances in recent years, a trend that is expected to continue as the world becomes increasingly bis central bankers ’ speeches interlinked. the world bank estimated remittance flows to developing countries in 2013 to have amounted to usd414 billion, and projections to usd540 billion by 2016. in kenya, the annual remittance inflows from kenyans in the diaspora, officially recorded from banks ’ returns, rose from usd338 million in 2004 to usd1. 3 billion in 2013. this is a commendable growth of more than 285 %. these remittances, that are playing a vital role in supporting both consumption and investment needs of the recipients, have also become an important source of foreign exchange inflows to the country. ladies and gentlemen, the kenya government recognizes the role and importance of remittances in boosting economic development. in this regard, cbk has worked closely with stakeholders in the mobile phone money transfer industry in implementing regulatory reforms aimed at guiding the market to prosperity. the national payment system regulations 2014 were formulated and gazetted to guide mobile phone money transfers within the country while the money remittance regulations 2013 have been operationalized to introduce standalone money remittance providers in kenya. previously all international remittances were made through commercial banks platforms. ladies and gentlemen : despite the significant progress made in making remittance services accessible and efficient in kenya, as in the rest of the developing world, there are still some challenges that we need to address. chief among these are the high transaction costs, integrity of the services and need for effective competition. the practice has been to charge a fee for transfer and fix the exchange rate for the amount to be received. however, the question remains “ how do we provide services for international money remittances at competitive costs? ” to address this, cbk has approved partnerships between local financial

the euro area, made up of segmented national financial markets, asset purchases are inevitably more difficult to calibrate, more complex to implement, and more likely to produce side - effects than other instruments, including moderately negative rates. negative rates may also have unwarranted side - effects, but those have so far remained limited. our current assessment of the side effects suggest therefore that there is no reason to deviate from the indications we have been consistently providing in the introductory statement to our press conferences. more generally, our monetary policy actions in pursuing our mandate will benefit from the completion of the banking union, through the creation of a european deposit insurance scheme, the third pillar of the banking union, as well as a common backstop for the single resolution fund. moreover as we move towards capital markets union, which is likely to further increase the importance of market - based finance in the euro area, the relevant eu and national authorities 5 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches should be endowed with tools to address risks arising from non - bank financial intermediation. 19 see, e. g., european central bank ( 2016 ), macroprudential bulletin, issue 1 / 2016, chapter 1 – topical issue : the ecb ’ s macroprudential policy framework. 2 see, e. g., hanson, s., a. kashyap, and j. stein, ( 2011 ), “ a macroprudential approach to financial regulation ”, journal of economic perspectives, 25 ( 1 ) : 3 - 28. 3 see draghi, m. ( 2017 ), “ monetary policy and the economic recovery in the euro area, ” speech delivered at the ecb and its watchers xviii conference, frankfurt am main, 6 april. 4 see, e. g., cœure, b. ( 2016 ), “ assessing the implications of negative interest rates, ” speech delivered at the yale financial crisis forum, yale school of management, new haven, 28 july. 5 see borio, c. and h. zhu, ( 2012 ), “ capital regulation, risk - taking and monetary policy : a missing link in the transmission mechanism? ”, journal of financial stability, 8 ( 4 ) : 236 – 251. 6 for empirical evidence, see e. g. jimenez, g., ongena, s., peydro, j. - l., and saurina, j., ( 2014 ), “