##9. 9 million. during the course of the year the eccb was the focal point of a financial sector assessment programme conducted by a joint team from the imf and the world bank, which reviewed areas of risk to the financial system including weaknesses in the regulatory and supervisory framework for financial institutions. arising out of this exercise several recommendations have been made for strengthening the regulatory arrangements, some of which have been incorporated in the new uniform banking act. work continues to be carried out on improving the payments system which is critical to commercial and economic activity in the currency union. the eccb is banker to the commercial banks and effects the exchange of payments mainly through the exchange of cheques. the volume of these activities is extremely high averaging 120, 000 cheques, at a value of ec $ 311 million per week. a more efficient payments systems at the level of the eccb and the commercial bank through a real time gross settlement system, and the retail level of debit and credit cards and cheques will lower transactions costs and provide increased benefits to the economy. the money and capital markets initiatives of the eccb are beginning to bear fruit with two more governments, grenada and st lucia coming on to the regional government securities market, and four more companies listing on the stock exchange. the eastern caribbean stock exchange ( ecse ) is by far the most technologically advanced exchange in the region and the hemisphere, and considerable interest is being shown in accessing it by market players in jamaica, trinidad and tobago and beyond the region. during the course of the year the eccb maintained the levels of the two rates of interest over which it has control, namely, the discount rate which was kept at 6. 5 per cent and the minimum savings rate which remained at 3 per cent. the bank continued to support the member countries in the areas of national accounts and balance of payments statistics as well as consolidating its own work in the area of monetary and financial statistics. given the importance of accurate, regular and timely statistics to the making of good policies, the bank has committed itself to working with the national statistical offices and external agencies to improve the identification, collection, analysis and management of statistics in the currency union. in the area of fiscal and debt management and economic adjustment, the bank in collaboration with the ministries of finance and caribbean regional technical assistance centre ( cartac ) initiated the structural adjustment technical assistance programme ( satap ) to address the serious concerns in these areas. the initiative is aimed at creating policy units in each

. as i reflect on the situation in which we now find ourselves, we must place ourselves in two planes : 1. the global environment in which we now function in the wake of the global crisis and 2. our current domestic environment following the impact of the crisis. we must also acknowledge that this time is different. the new landscape is that of a low growth / high unemployment trajectory with high sovereign debt and fragile financial systems. this is a global phenomenon with our major trading partners, the usa, uk and europe, all experiencing this phase. our own domestic environment has clearly shown that there are some factors over which we have some control and others over which we do not. our countries can be characterized as small, open and vulnerable countries – features which when defined are extremely bis central bankers ’ speeches challenging. this calls for deep reflection on what would be the viable responses to these circumstances. this is the time for a sober assessment of our situation, what i refer to as “ objective realism ”. we must then summon up the optimism and hope to successfully address these circumstances to deliver a better standard of living and quality of life to our people. our governments have crafted the instruments required to deal with the challenges being faced by our countries, operating as very small independent states in a global village, but in the current circumstances there must be a greatly increased urgency and focus on implementation. the economic union has given us the political, constitutional and economic framework and the theatre, the single space, for achieving our goals. the eight point stabilization and growth programme provides the technical approach to be used for resolving the problem. in addition the work programme coordination initiative provides the critical ingredients of coordination, cooperation, and exchange of information within each country, between our countries and with the regional and international communities to achieve our goals in a much more cost effective way than presently occurs. we therefore look forward to the next stages of this growth forum initiative as we move towards achieving our development goals with realism and hope. bis central bankers ’ speeches