financial system ’ s resilience to shocks and its contribution to the needs of a growing economy, the bank of ghana, in collaboration with some selected audit firms, carried out a diagnostic assessment of the quality of financial exposures in the form of loans and advances as well as investments of twenty eight ( 28 ) ghanaian banks in 2015. the exercise revealed some vulnerability with respect to loan losses within the banking system which require capital injection by some banks. the bulk of these losses were due to funding to the utility companies and bulk oil distribution companies ( bdcs ). currently, the government is finalizing plans to clear all arrears due to bdcs and utility companies to restore their viability. the implementation of the plans would improve the capital levels of banks that were affected by the exercise and place them on a sound footing. also, the bank of ghana is developing a recapitalization and liquidity plan to strengthen the banking industry and make it more resilient and robust. as part of the plan, the bank will be conducting an update of the aqr of all banks to effectively determine the current provisioning and capital needs of each bank. banks that are found to be significantly undercapitalized would be required to inject capital within a stipulated time frame and improve upon their risk management practices. the exercise will be repeated on regular basis to ensure that all banks have adequate provision for loan losses and the required amount of capital to match their levels of business. this will ensure the safety and soundness of our banking system. mr. chairman, ladies and gentlemen, you may recall that in march 2014, bank of ghana launched a strategic payment systems roadmap for ghana to accelerate the transformation of the payment system landscape from cash - dominance to cash - lite. the key bis central bankers ’ speeches strategy for executing this agenda is the establishment of an integrated and interoperable electronic national payment system infrastructure. a national payment system of this nature will avert the development of fragmented payment systems and ensure efficient use of liquidity within the financial system. currently, there is interoperability within the payment cards subsector, evidenced by the “ gh - link ” switch on one hand ; and interoperability among international card schemes such as visa and mastercard on the other hand. however, the mobile money subsector, which has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years, and also holds the key to financial inclusion is not interoperable. this situation poses a serious

enabling regulatory regime for digital payments. 11. for all intents and purposes, the act seeks to promote innovation in the design and delivery of payment products and services by widening the scope of the payments industry to fintechs and engendering competition. it is expected that fintechs ’ innovations will deliver products that meet the needs of all stakeholders, whether banked or unbanked and underserved, to attract them into the digital payment space. also, a proportionate regulatory regime has been adopted to promote fairness in regulation and accommodate different payment service providers. 12. the quest for cashless payments is gradually shifting consumer interfaces from the manual environment to cyber space. alongside this transition, there has also been an increased spate of complex cyber security threats which is posing risks to the cashless agenda. the bank of ghana has therefore issued a cyber - security directive for compliance by banks and payment service providers to build a robust and resilient digital ecosystem. to further accelerate the digitisation process, stakeholders must work collectively to promote merchant acceptance of digitised financial products and services, with particular emphasis on lowertier merchants, such as small and micro - enterprises. 13. the next key area is enhancing public confidence. despite the successes achieved so far, some consumers still lack awareness and confidence in electronic payments. in this direction, the various stakeholders are undertaking continued consumer education and financial literacy to build confidence and help in fraud reduction. ghipss and stakeholders in the payment industry are also building a fund to support consumer education. also, on a regular basis, payment service providers are educating the public on how to avoid scams in the use of the newly deployed payment products and services. 14. the bank of ghana is fully committed to the cash - lite agenda which ties in with the government of ghana ’ s digital economy agenda. so far, we have seen the introduction of the biometric national identification system and the digital addressing system which are all supportive of our quest to drive digitised financial transactions. as the central bank, we will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of these initiatives. of course, there will be challenges, but with firm commitment, we will eventually reduce the dominance of cash in transactions and improve the efficiency and security of payments for a more inclusive society. 15. to conclude, let me note that the future of banking services is digitisation and it brings opportunities as well as challenges. we can harness digitisation to promote transactional efficiency in the delivery of financial