ardo hansson : availability of banking services in estonia answer by mr ardo hansson, governor of the bank of estonia ( eesti pank ), before the riigikogu ( the unicameral parliament of estonia ), tallinn, 22 september 2014. * * * interpellations raised by members of the riigikogu concerning the accessibility of banking services 1. why has eesti pank not set minimum requirements for the provision of cash and payment services in a decree alongside the technical requirements, in the context of the emergency act? 2. what solutions has eesti pank discussed for ensuring the equal accessibility of cash and payment services across estonia? the principal position of eesti pank banking services are important and they need to be accessible to people and companies across estonia. it is reasonable for services to be provided efficiently and flexibly. i understand that people are worried about the accessibility of banking services across estonia. eesti pank does not prefer any one means of payment over any other. cash is an official means of payment and so eesti pank believes that it should be available through flexible solutions everywhere in estonia. eesti pank works every day to supply estonian companies and people with cash. we provide a flexible cash service to the commercial banks, giving cash out and taking it in every working day, and in exceptional circumstances we can be even more flexible. our aim in this is to make sure that cash can circulate smoothly and without interruption and we also manage the state ’ s cash reserves and test the quality of the cash in estonia every day. tomorrow eesti pank will release ten - euro notes of the second series into circulation, and these are more secure and longer - lasting than the notes of the first series, with better security features. as governor of eesti pank i can confirm that cash is not going anywhere. i personally like to use cash and i am proud of the quality of the euro cash used in estonia. access to cash is important, and it is a complicated issue that doesn ’ t have a quick and easy solution. this is why it needs to be discussed, and eesti pank is very pleased that we could be part of the working group set up by minister of economic affairs and infrastructure urve palo to look for solutions. eesti pank believes that the issue of access to banking services across estonia should not be handled under the emergency act, but this does not mean that it should be ignored. i will

now answer questions about the emergency act first, and then questions about access to banking services. coming to the first question of the interpellation, as governor of eesti pank i have set minimum requirements for the provision of cash and payment services in case of emergency. the decree requires that the four largest banks in estonia restore their normal services to 70 % of their normal operational level within 12 hours in the event of an emergency. how the banks restore their services is up to them, but they must describe their recovery plan to eesti pank, who then passes the information on to the ministry of the interior. as i understand it, the purpose of the emergency act is to see that vital services are restored in the event of an emergency. it is not intended to cover cases where some bis central bankers ’ speeches people do not have day to day access to some important services. neither is it intended for the purpose of guiding trends in urbanisation and marginalisation. that is an issue for regional policy, not one that requires solving under emergency powers. regional policy lies within the domain of the riigikogu, the government and local authorities. that said, cash circulation is an issue of importance for eesti pank, and we wish to be fully engaged in setting policy for cash circulation. this brings me on to the second question in the interpellation, and the position of eesti pank on the accessibility of cash and payment services across estonia. eesti pank ’ s goals for cash are to supply the commercial banks with sufficient cash resources and to ensure the quality of the cash. the commercial banks distribute the cash among the people and companies of estonia, in the same way that it is done around the world. eesti pank is not aware of any country anywhere where the central bank is responsible for operating the cash network serving people and companies directly. it would require massive investment and fixed costs for eesti pank and the outcome would most likely be unwieldy and unclear for the public in their use of money. the commercial banks are much better able to do this and do it more efficiently. however, eesti pank is responsible for managing cash circulation, and we consider it important to engage in looking for ways of making sure services can be accessed across estonia. access to banking services is a problem globally, this is not an issue that is unique to estonia. a parliamentary commission in australia looked into the matter ten years ago, and similar questions have been discussed in canada