of sept 2006, for instance, the country ’ s 85 thrift banks had total deposits of roughly $ 6. 1 billion, up 19. 8 % from the year ago level. this is about 15 % of consolidated deposits of the banking sector. if our savings bank can capture more deposits, it will have more funds for lending, and have better opportunities to improve its profitability. the first challenge for our banks, therefore, is to find innovative and more cost - efficient ways to provide financial services as well as to expand their network and upgrade their infrastructure to reach an even greater number of our workers and their beneficiaries. most of our workers ’ remittances come from the united states, saudi arabia, canada, italy, the united kingdom, japan, the united arab emirates, hong kong, singapore, and taiwan. so far, so good. banks and non - bank remittance companies have been heeding our challenge to have faster, safer and more efficient remittance delivery. in fact, the philippines is credited to have launched one of the world ’ s first mobile phone - based remittance service. specifically, we now have improved platform for remittances through the adoption of advanced systems and new technologies such as internet / on - line banking, phone banking and through short messaging. furthermore, we now have enhanced and expanded financial products and services including bills payment arrangements, international money / cash cards, remittance network expansion, as well as new correspondent remittance agreements with host countries. to promote the efficient delivery of competitively - priced remittance services by banks and other remittance service providers, the bsp issued a circular requiring banks and non - bank financial institutions to post the charges for their various remittance products, including classification of costs. this disclosure requirement also provides the necessary information for the worker or his / her beneficiary to make a more informed decision in bank selection. the ofws as bank clients also benefited from the improvements in the country ’ s payments and settlement systems, such as the full interconnection of the three major automated teller machine ( atm ) networks ; and the continuing approval by the bangko sentral of alternative mechanisms for sending money, such as sms - based applications for remittances. the interconnection of the three networks facilitates greater accessibility as more atms can now serve the withdrawal needs of depositors. more importantly, it reduces the cost of transactions since it eliminated fees

##quacy and incomes. this is an important challenge, not just for sake of healthcare, but for the sake of retirement security. we need to move towards a fair, progressive and sustainable healthcare financing systems. if we don ’ t, then our ability to afford decent retirement for all our citizens, in a whole range of countries, is going to be severely compromised. emerging opportunities for insurance 29. let me move now to some of the emerging opportunities in the insurance industry. it is a difficult environment in many respects – i ’ ve spoken about low interest rates, here to stay for the long term. it ’ s also a crowded market in traditional insurable risks. you know that better than me. too much capital is chasing after the same risks in traditional insurance lines ( property and casualty for instance ), and that doesn ’ t help returns. 30. but there are still many viable options for growth, and here in emerging asia especially, there are major new underwriting opportunities. • the insurance market in emerging asia is projected to grow by 9 % per year over the next 10 years, which is substantially above the global growth of the insurance industry. • by 2020, asia is expected to account for 40 % of the insurance business. 31. there are three major opportunities that i will highlight briefly, besides traditional underwriting opportunities. infrastructure financing 32. first, infrastructure financing. it is a huge opportunity in asia. whichever infrastructure you look at – transportation, communication and power links, water and environmental sustainability – in every area the needs are growing, the need to remove bottlenecks to economic growth and social development are growing. 33. traditionally, it has been a sector that has been financed by governments and banks. governments will be constrained in the future, across the region. although banks currently have ample liquidity, they too will over time become more constrained. so that combination of governments and banks isn ’ t going to be able to cope with the rapid growth in financing for infrastructure in the future. • this is why institutional investors – insurers, pension funds and other long term investors – have become very important. for insurers, infrastructure is an attractive asset class. it is attractive as a potential diversifier of assets, and has the potential to provide reliable inflation - linked returns over time, and with low correlation to other conventional assets. 34. but we need quality data for infrastructure to take off as an asset class for long term investors. we need quality data for reliable performance benchmarks