of customers who have good credit histories. the rationale of credit information sharing is to address information asymmetries and enable banks to more effectively price credit risk. credit reference bureaus, banks, and other stakeholders must work together to develop credible credit scores that are incorporated in credit risk appraisal and pricing models. technology is also providing interesting opportunities to gather customer information through digital identities and footprints that can add to the traditional sources of credit information. on its part, cbk will support this vision by creating an enabling legal and regulatory environment that expands the sources of credit information, ensures data accuracy, and supports an effective resolution of customer complaints. third, transparency and information disclosure need to be enhanced. customers are increasingly demanding transparency and disclosures on interest, fees and charges. on their part, banks must fully disclose their interest rates, charges and particularly the fees that customers perceive as hidden. transparency and disclosure by banks should be a way of business and not just a regulatory requirement. technology offers an opportunity to enhance transparency and information disclosures. a case in point is the cost of credit website that was launched by cbk and kba in june 2017. the information on this website will be expanded in the future beyond the three loan products that are shown currently, to cover a broader range of loan products and even incorporate deposit products. moving further, a banking price index of a commonly used basket of products and services can be developed to further enhance customers ’ comparability of prices of banking products and services. customer confidence can only be achieved when they are able to fully understand the true cost of banking products and services. this will allay the ever - present fear of banks hiding some costs up their sleeves, out of sight of customers who only come to know of them much later when they are already in distress. fourth, banks need to do the right thing. at the heart of any transformation are people. without a change of attitude and behaviour by kenyan and other bankers around the world, any transformation will be futile. the global financial crisis and its aftermath underscored the need to raise the ethical standards of bankers. for instance, the scandals on the fixing of the libor and other rates in europe, and more recently the exchange rate fixing scandal in south africa, brought to the fore the greed and deceit that ravaged the global banking industry. 4 to address these shortcomings, there is a recognition of the need for ethics in banking. ethical banking requires that the needs of society trump those of

banks are expanding their size and services to cater to fast increasing customer needs through technology enabled payment systems, internet based access and innovative service delivery modes. other important business activities of banks such as participation in securities, currency and money markets, besides compliance functions like reserve maintenance, regulatory reporting etc. are all having processes heavily dependent on information technology. even in case of internal work processes having large component of manual processing, dependence on computers and it based communication mechanism is increasingly felt. overall, banks are dependent on it based systems for almost all of their activities, although the level of sophistication and refinement in such systems may vary from bank to bank or across activities or banking industry segments ( commercial banks, cooperative banks etc. ). reasons for this are not far to seek. technology has become essential component for customer related and market related activities and participant banks cannot meet the requirements imposed by timelines or volumes without leveraging on technology. even for backend and internal work processes, cost and time constraints are pushing banks to lean upon technology. it may not be possible to store and retrieve huge amounts of customer data, transaction data and business information, but for the power of technology based systems. more so, the globalization, competition and compliance requirements make it imperative for banks to increasingly use it based platforms and applications for most of their activities. it has become necessary for banks to use modern marketing as well as customer service tools to survive in a competitive environment ; which involve large scale data collection, analysis and efficient communication which are not possible without the help of it. it and financial inclusion it has a great role to play in furthering the financial inclusion drive, involving expansion of banking access to remote locations in a cost effective way. reaching banking to the excluded segments has been the focus of regulatory agenda and many initiatives have been taken in this regard. of the 74, 414 villages with a population of more than 2000 identified as unbanked, 74, 199 ( 99. 7 per cent ) villages have already been provided with banking services, on the back of concerted efforts of the banking fraternity encouraged by the government and reserve bank of india. in the next stage, it has been proposed to cover unbanked villages with population less than 2000. considering the vast geographical expanse of the country, bis central bankers ’ speeches such a gigantic task would not be possible at all without the help of technology. technology has the potential to cut down the costs, bring down the barriers and make the financial inclusion a viable business