to an end, namely to enhance the welfare of our citizens. the achievement of sustainable convergence and competitiveness is vital for the successful membership of the euro area. to conclude i would like to thank our host governor bogov. as stated in the report of the programme we are closing today, he has already brought the nbrm in line with or close to european standards in many areas. i wish him every success in working on the remaining issues and offer our services and support to this end wherever possible. i thank ambassador orav and the european union for funding this initiative and hope that, given the importance of strong institutions, the eu also will support central bank cooperation with the nbrm in the future. and finally i would like to thank my colleagues from the ecb and the national central banks who are also represented here today for their efforts and contribution to this very successful cooperation programme. bis central bankers ’ speeches

when the degree of competition has increased we will no longer have to supervise bank fees. the best supervision is that exercised by consumers and the markets. in addition to the work invested in the subject of bank fees, the bank of israel was also very busy with many aspects of increasing the level of competition long term in banking services for households and small businesses. the underlying approach to this topic is to create sources of competition not only from within the banking system but also from outside it. the aim is to offer the israeli consumer alternatives for certain services currently provided by the banks. in some areas this requires cooperation with other institutions, such as the ministry of finance ( and specifically with the commissioner of the capital market, insurance and savings ), the ministry of justice, the securities authority, the tel aviv stock exchange, the anti - trust authority, and the government companies authority. what are the main potential sources of competition for the banking system from without? 1. money market funds. these are likely to compete for short - term local - currency deposits in banks. we hope that in due course they will be able to offer additional cash management services, such as drawing checks. 2. commercial paper. these are likely to compete for short - term local - currency deposits in banks. 3. repo - type transactions. these are likely to compete against short - term bank credit. 4. securitization. this should contribute to the general development of the credit market, including nonbank credit. 5. a platform for online distribution of mutual funds. this may compete with the banks in their distribution of mutual funds. in addition to the above, there are other possible sources of competition from within the banking system : 1. simplification of switching from bank to bank. this a very important step in encouraging competition within the banking system, and several significant measures have already been introduced by the banking supervision department : banks need to provide customers with relevant information before customers close accounts and the process of switching banks has been simplified ; the transfer of the account is handled by the bank to which the customer is moving ; customers now have the possibility of transferring some of their activities ; and the costs of transferring to another bank have been reduced. the banking supervision department intends to tighten the enforcement of its directives in this regard and to increase customers ’ awareness of it. the power to supervise bank fees will also enable steps to be taken as necessary to reduce the costs of switching between banks. 2. increasing the transparency of banking activity for customers