steps we've taken since last august to address the concerns covered in the cgfs report ( see summary table ). summary table other central banks have also been working towards the same goals. the cgfs report suggests that central bank actions in response to the market turbulence have been effective in that they have " reduced, though not resolved, " tensions in short - term money markets, thereby mitigating the damage to the economy. however, it has been much more difficult to address funding - market pressures in the broader sense, particularly in term, unsecured markets. the report notes that " the assessment of central banks about their ability to deal with such market pressures depends crucially on the pressures'origins : how much came from liquidity concerns, which are amenable to central bank actions, and how much from counterparty risk or other concerns, which are beyond the reach of central bank operations. overall, the judgment was that tensions would have been more acute and more damaging without the forceful interventions of central banks. " that does not mean that our work in dealing with the broad policy lessons from this period of financial turbulence is done. one important set of issues being studied is how fluctuations in the financial sector play out in the real economy, and how regulations and practices – including the regulation of financial institutions – can dampen or exacerbate these fluctuations. under the umbrella of the financial stability forum, various international committees have been looking at these important issues and are considering a variety of proposals. it is important to reduce procyclicality in the financial system – perhaps including the key aspects of leverage and liquidity – in order to reduce the magnitude of the effects of future financial disturbances. i'd like to turn now to the current state of the markets. the current state of the markets although credit conditions in canada remain challenging, they are better in many respects than those in other major markets. for example, short - term credit spreads, as measured by the spread between short - term lending rates and the expected overnight rate, have narrowed significantly in recent months ( chart 2 : spreads between 3 - month libor and ois ). in large part, the lower short - term credit spreads in canada reflect the healthier state of canadian financial institutions. this relative strength is also shown in the smaller decline in stock market valuations for canadian financial institutions relative to their foreign peers over the past 14 months ( chart 3 : performance of financial sector equities ). nevertheless, there

used for settlement of cheque clearing positions of the port louis automated clearing house ( plach ). the plach was established in 1967 for the collection of taxes and other revenues for the government. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches the introduction of mobile payments was yet another important milestone in the digitalization process. however, in the absence of a central platform, service providers operated their private schemes in a silo model and this initiative did not have the expected impact. to bridge this gap, the bank established a national payment switch, the mauritius central automated switch. branded as maucas, the switch is a 24 / 7 digital payment system based on novel state - of - the - art technology. this innovative digital platform makes banking, e - commerce and mobile payments interoperable and encourages cashless means of payment. fintech firms can leverage on this platform to offer value - added services and provide banks with opportunities to collaborate with emerging technologies service providers. this synergy not only brings more efficiency in the system but also acts as a catalyst in the digital transformation of the economy. ladies and gentlemen, when i assumed office in march this year, i took several initiatives to pave the way from a cashbased to a highly electronic and digital structure. the upgrading of the macss and the bulk clearing system, the setting up of a platform for facilitating digital customer identification and the implementation of an infrastructure to support digitalization of government payments are some of these initiatives. my vision is to uplift the payment ecosystem in mauritius to a level comparable to that of advanced economies, and make it a key pillar for the digitalization of the economy. i am pleased to share with you that, as a result of an effective collaborative approach with all banks since april this year, all banks offering retail payment services in mauritius have already joined the maucas platform. i thank all banks for having delivered on what seemed to be a tall order in april this year, that too despite the lock - down period. in line with our strategy to expand the payment landscape, we are now actively facilitating the integration of non - bank operators to the national payment switch as well. work is equally ongoing on a number of key initiatives which will further facilitate digital transformation of banking and payment services. these include digital identification using new technologies such as facial recognition and other associated tools as well as the establishment of the central kyc system to enable digital customer on - boarding in both the banking and nonbanking space. another ground - breaking