perks ligoya : improving access to credit in malawi speech by dr perks ligoya, governor of the reserve bank of malawi, on the occasion of the official launch of lilongwe branch of malawi savings bank ( msb ), lilongwe, 27 february 2010. * * * our guest of honour, the minister of finance, honorable ken kandodo, mp the chairman of the board of directors of malawi savings bank, mr. joseph mwanamvekha who is also the secretary to the treasury the chief executive of lilongwe city assembly, mr. kelvin m ’ mangisa the chief executive of lilongwe district assembly directors of malawi savings bank here present valued customers of the bank management and staff of the bank here present members of the media distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen : our guest of honour, on behalf of the directors, management and staff of the reserve bank of malawi and indeed on my own behalf, i would like to congratulate the board, management and staff of malawi savings bank limited for their untiring efforts to influence the presence and outreach of the bank. some of us may have read in the papers last week that malawi savings bank moved out of post office premises to occupy modern and spacious office space in ntaja, mangochi and monkey bay. furthermore, those of us who ply the blantyremulanje road via thyolo, may have seen a magnificent branch at bvumbwe complete with modern amenities like an atm. to put the icing on the cake, today we are here to bear witness to the official opening of lilongwe branch. these are major milestones. the initiatives present solid evidence that the bank is well poised to effectively perform its roles relating to savings mobilization and financing of investments in both the rural and urban sectors of our economy. the business and economic environment is looking good for malawi. the imf has just approved a 3 year financial assistance program for the country. this is clear testimony that malawi is pursuing good macro economic policies and fiscal discipline under the visionary leadership of his excellency, ngwazi dr. bingu wa mutharika. government through the reserve bank of malawi is sparing no effort in creating an enabling environment for banks to operate effectively in the country. as a result, more banks have come on the market and are willing to serve the rural, urban and semi - urban communities owing to the ever improving rural infrastructure and conducive fiscal policies. the

charles s r chuka : intermediate banking supervision speech by mr charles s r chuka, governor of the reserve bank of malawi, at the opening ceremony of the mefmi regional workshop on “ intermediate banking supervision ”, blantyre, 24 february 2014. * * * the executive director for mefmi, dr. ellias ngalande, the deputy governor, supervision dr. grant kabango, the director of bank supervision, mr eldin mlelemba and your supervisors here present, esteemed resource persons, mefmi staff, the course participants, ladies and gentlemen. i wish to extend a warm welcome to all of you to malawi, and to the intermediate banking supervision workshop. allow me to welcome in a special way participants from central banks in the region. i very much hope that you will find the blantyre environment enjoyable during your stay. it gives me great pleasure to join you for the opening session of this important regional workshop. i want to thank the executive director for inviting me to make a brief statement. we live in times of an increasing integrated global community. in particular, the growing role of pan - african banks means that our financial systems are getting interlinked at a pace that creates special challenges to bank supervisors. in particular, capacity challenges have become acute over the past ten years or so. central banks have found it hard to retain supervisory skills against the back drop of competitive remuneration packages in the private sector. as a result serious skills gaps have emerged in banking supervision. it is in this context that i wish to applaud mefmi for its efforts to contribute to capacity building in bank supervision at regional level. i have no doubt that this workshop could not have been better timed. malawi ’ s banking system has eleven banks three of which are pan - african : standard bank, nedbank and ecobank. but there is also strong foreign presence in three other banks. moreover, some of the locally registered banks have already opened branches or acquired controlling stakes in banks in neighboring countries. these developments have far reaching implications for bank supervision, including the need to ensure that our staffs are knowledgeable fully in the application of international standards and codes in the bank supervision. they also must grapple with the complexity of bank resolution of pan - african banks. it is in this context, that all countries in the region are at various stages of basle standards for bank supervision. you will be interested to know that malawi has this january implemented