emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : increasing information sharing through mous remarks by prof emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the uganda law society - financial sector consultative meeting for increasing information sharing through mous ( memorandums of understanding ), kampala, 22 march 2010. * * * distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen good morning i am greatly honoured to deliver the opening remarks at this consultative meeting. i would like to thank all of you for responding positively to the invitation to this consultative meeting whose main objective is to promote institutional networking and information sharing with strategic partners to improve market efficiency. the presence of the various financial sector experts in this consultative forum is testimony that you are committed to finding durable solutions to the impediments that still exist in the financial markets. more specifically, this meeting is intended to identify the gaps that exist in the current arrangements for cooperation, to explore the scope of services and any other information that stakeholders need to share, and to generate proposals on the best legal frameworks for information sharing. some institutions may already be having adhoc arrangements for information sharing and cooperation but these arrangements may not be optimal and this forum should provide avenues for formalizing and strengthening existing arrangements. at the bank of uganda ( bou ), we consider information sharing as a key ingredient in the process of financial markets development. in this regard, the bou duly supports institutional efforts to formalize information sharing through mous. i am happy to note that at national level, all the financial markets regulators namely, capital markets authority, uganda insurance commission and the bank of uganda have an mou for sharing information on regulatory matters. in the design of the financial markets development plan ( fmdp ), specific initiatives were included on information sharing and networking using a top down approach from regulators to the regulated entities. this will not only ensure integration of service delivery in the financial sector but will also result into a majority of the population accessing financial services and products. the more we increase financial integration, the more we shall reach a greater population and the more we shall promote the development of financial markets. it is important for us to move in this direction in order to adequately to prepare ourselves to participate in the greater regional market and remain competitive. our expectation is that we should see more integration of the financial sector, enhanced networking, stronger linkages, higher level transparency and enhanced cooperation. all this should ultimately result in increased efficiency and reduction in costs of doing business

emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile : providing better access to banking in uganda speech by mr emmanuel tumusiime - mutebile, governor of the bank of uganda, at the official opening of imperial bank uganda limited, acacia mall branch, kampala, 10 march 2014. * * * the shareholders of imperial bank uganda limited members of the board of directors ; senior management and staff ; distinguished customers ; invited guests ; ladies and gentlemen. i am greatly honoured to be invited as chief guest at this official opening of a new branch of imperial bank at acacia mall. let me begin by congratulating the directors and the management of imperial bank for the progress they have made in expanding the bank ’ s foot print in the ugandan banking market. this is the fifth branch that the bank has opened since it began its operations in uganda three years ago. it will provide better access to premier banking services for the bank ’ s customers in this vibrant business location in the city. uganda currently has 25 commercial banks in operation, compared to only 15 at the end of 2007. in the last six years, 12 new banks have entered the market in uganda, of which imperial bank is one of the most recent. it is pertinent to ask what benefits has the almost doubling of the number of commercial banks operating in uganda delivered to bank customers in this country. i would like to spend a few minutes addressing this question. for many years, during the colonial period and in the three decades after independence, our banking markets were dominated by a relatively small number of banks, mostly foreign or publicly owned. competition was not very vigorous and access to banking services was very limited for the majority of the ugandan population. this began to change in the 1990s, with new privately owned banks entering the market. since the mid 2000s, new entry into the banking market has gathered pace, comprising for the most part banks which are subsidiaries of african banks, especially banks from nigeria and kenya. imperial bank is part of this trend ; its parent bank is kenyan. the new entry into our banking market has spurred a dramatic expansion of the physical presence of banks in uganda. the number of commercial bank branches has expanded from 194 in 2007 to the current level of 544. the 12 new entrants to our market in the last six years contributed 152 of these new branches. the expansion of banking has also brought many new customers into the banking system. in 2007 there were 2. 2 million bank accounts held in commercial banks. this