overwhelm them. while all monetary policy tools have distributional effects, asset purchases have generated far greater attention than have changes in interest rates. for example, there is a perception that asset purchases increase inequality. in the extreme, this risks undermining trust in monetary policy makers and the constituency for operational independence. again, it bears remembering that distributional considerations are rightly the responsibility of governments not of independent technocratic monetary policy committees that are narrowly mandated to achieve price stability. in the event, bank of england research shows that income and wealth inequality has been stable in the uk since the early 1990s, and fell in the years after the crisis when the mpc used unconventional policies. those who gained least from the higher asset prices that resulted from the mpc ’ s asset purchases gained more from its broader effects supporting jobs and activity. 38 simulations using the bank ’ s main forecasting model suggest that the bank ’ s monetary policy easing in response to the crisis measures raised the level of gdp by around 8 % relative to trend and lowered unemployment by 4 percentage points at their peak. without this action, real wages would have been 8 % lower, or around £2, 000 per worker per year, and 1. 5 million more people would have been out of work. 39 see ‘ renewal of the inflation - control target : background information – october 2016 ’, bank of canada. see bunn, p, pugh, a and yeates, c ( 2018 ) ‘ the distributional impact of monetary policy easing in the uk between 2008 and 2014 ’, bank of england staff working paper no. 720. see ‘ the spectre of monetarism ’, roscoe lecture given by mark carney at liverpool john moores university, 5 december 2016. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches that said, greater use of unconventional monetary policy could increase the risk that the bank ’ s core mission is co - opted in the pursuit of other public policies goals. perhaps reflecting the success of inflation targeting in achieving price stability, in recent years a host of issues have been laid at the door of the bank of england from increasing housing affordability to improving poor productivity. there have also been calls for asset purchases to address policy goals not directly related to monetary policy, such as people ’ s qe or mmt – which essentially equate to fiscal policy – and green qe to support the transition to a net zero carbon world by supporting

risk - based supervisory framework becomes fully operational, banks posing higher risks to the system will be subject to more intensive supervision. we have also introduced a framework for domestic – systemically important banks since july 2014. all banks which have been identified as being systemically important are required to hold a capital surcharge in the range of 1 % to 2. 5 %. mauritius, as a highly open economy, has a few large corporates that dominate economic activity. these corporates require a close monitoring. a large exposure limit is in place to curtail the exposure of any borrower or group of borrowers. the basis for computing the large exposure limit was recently enhanced from capital base to tier 1 capital. further, in our framework for domestic – systemically important banks, exposure to large groups is a supplementary indicator. these large groups have been defined as having an exposure of at least rs2 billion to the banking sector. another topic that warrants attention is climate change and the reduction of global carbon emissions. the financial services industry has an important role to play in that area. i know that some central banks are already at an advanced stage in their work and that much work has already been done on that subject at the level of the fsb. in sub - saharan africa, central banks have not focused extensively on climate change. we are eager to know more about the work that has been carried out by the fsb. climate change related measures could also, perhaps, be on the agenda for future meetings. an area on which we must also focus is that of the application of technology in finance. the emergence of fintech represents an opportunity for africa. advances in areas of finance - related technology, such as blockchain, mobile payments and artificial intelligence are opening up new possibilities for financial service firms. this is an area where regional cooperation will be of paramount importance. the setting up of the fintech association will give the impetus to position mauritius as a regional hub for that industry. ladies and gentlemen, our common ambition is to transform africa into an innovative and technologically - enabled continent. however, as regulators, we have an important role to play in fostering innovation. it is our responsibility to ensure that banks operate safely and comply with applicable laws. this is why we must ensure that our regulatory and supervisory structures remain effective by constantly adapting them to changing technologies and business models. since 2017, banks are allowed to have recourse to cloud - based services subject to the fulfilment of certain