they may find their customers going elsewhere - for example, to internet - based financial institutions. as we have seen from some recent incidents, the banks in hong kong have been lagging behind in the provision of clear information to their customers about the cost of some financial products such as credit card advances. moreover, there has been recent controversy about the provisions in credit card agreements that entitle the lenders to reclaim from debtors the full legal costs and expenses of recovering overdue debts. in a recent court case, the judge ruled that the relevant provisions were unconscionable and therefore could not be enforced. we have written to authorised institutions to ask them to review their terms and conditions in the light of the court ’ s ruling and to ensure that they are consistent with hong kong law. we have also initiated a review of the code of banking practice with a view to strengthening the provisions on such issues as transparency in the provision of banking services and the proper and responsible use of debt collection agents. these issues are already addressed in the code to some extent, and perhaps if the spirit of the code had been more closely adhered to, some of the recent bad publicity for the banks could have been avoided. however, it is evident that the code needs to be made more specific in some areas, and the issue of how to ensure compliance must also be addressed. the code of banking practice is not part of our reform measures, but i have digressed to talk about it for two reasons. first, as already indicated, it becomes all the more important in a deregulated environment to ensure that there is a fair and balanced relationship between banks and their customers. second, the fact that we are going to have to devote resources to this issue for the rest of this year means that one of our reform measures, namely a review of the current three tier system of authorisation, will be postponed from this year to next. this will also allow us to take into account the results of our forthcoming review of deposit protection arrangements, which may have a bearing on the minimum size of deposits that authorised institutions which are not licensed banks should be allowed to take. safety and soundness of the banking system deposit protection is part of what might be called the safety net arrangements for the banking system. as the name suggests the safety net is there to catch banks that are in trouble or, if not the banks, then at least their depositors. this is part of the other aspect of our reform measures that are aimed

- committee of the exchange fund advisory committee, mature and arrangements put in place, in collaboration with the industry. allow me to conclude with a commercial targeted at retail investors. the exchange fund notes are a very safe investment – you are putting your money with the exchange fund, which is managed by the hkma. the exchange fund notes provide you with a steady stream of fixed - interest income that is higher than interest on bank deposits. the exchange fund notes are highly liquid – you can sell them any time you want. there are 26 market - makers appointed by the hkma to make a market in exchange fund paper. the exchange fund notes have a transparent and efficient price discovery system – up - to - date prices and yields can be easily found in newspapers and the financial media. but we all should not forget, of course, that the prices of exchange fund notes can go up as well as down, depending on the level of interest rates. end of commercial. thank you.