##evu / naitasiri, namosi / serua, nadroga / nadi, bua / macuata, cakaudrove and fly - in fly - out operations to taveuni and kadavu. apart from various deposits products, the rural program also includes small and micro loans to communities in rural and outlying areas. the government and the reserve bank have supported this initiative of anz from the beginning and are pleased to see that more and more rural areas are being serviced through anz rural banking. we encourage various businesses and government agencies, including nltb, to use these services when they wish to make payments such as royalties, land rent etc. financial literacy programs organised by the united nations development program ( undp ) have been conducted in conjunction with anz rural banking in these rural areas as well since october 2004. atms atms provide a very convenient way of doing banking. customers can access their bank accounts to make cash withdrawals or credit card cash advances and check their account balances as well as topping up their mobile balances. with more and more atms being installed around the country, the need to go to a bank for cash has reduced dramatically. i am told that people in fiji use atms more than in many other countries. this is seen from the frequency of use of each atm in the country. as of today, there are 151 atms in fiji. of that total, anz has 70 atms or 46 percent of the total. this is an excellent achievement for anz in fiji! the location of this atm in nasese is going to service a rapidly growing part of suva. we hope that this will lessen the queues at the atms in suva. fijiclear while we are on the topic of access to money, i would like to take this opportunity to say a few words about fijiclear. fiji ’ s electronic payment system is called fijiclear. this system went live on 30 august 2007 and was launched on 16 october 2007. fijiclear allows people to make and receive payments electronically on the same day through a commercial bank anywhere in fiji. fijiclear has been in operation for almost a year but for some reason many of our people are not using this very easy and efficient payment system. there are a number of benefits of using fijiclear. to the payee i. e. the person receiving money, the benefits include : • funds are credited into the account

the customers. westpac again has been at the forefront of such developments. one product that we are keen to push is the export finance facility where eligible exporters can access bank loans at low interest rates. unfortunately, for some reason, it has not been used much by exporters and the banks. westpac came to us suggesting some changes to the facility and i thank them for the initiative. we have therefore introduced most of the changes that they suggested and we hope that these changes will make the facility more attractive and facilitate the growth in exports – which we sorely need to improve our balance of payments position. i encourage you to talk to your bank commercial bank or the fiji development bank about this facility. there were two cabinet decisions recently that pose considerable interests to the industry. we heard that cabinet has approved the establishment of a financial services ombudsman scheme. there are several countries like new zealand and australia that has such a scheme and we can learn from their experiences in the operation and the funding of their ombudsman. when properly set up, this ombudsman scheme should help both customers and bankers settle disputes in a timely and efficient manner. we have also heard that cabinet has also approved the establishment of a financial services commission. we certainly look forward to government discussing this rather complex issue further with all stakeholders. westpac nakasi let me turn to the branch that we are opening this evening. i am pleasantly surprised at the development happening in nakasi. i know the locality very well as i used to live here in the early eighties. in fact, the apartment that we stayed in was at this very site that this complex has been built. there was only the gulab supermarket and cinema at that time. now, we have major supermarkets and shopping centers that have set up in this area. i am sure that this growth will continue into the future. i am therefore pleased that a commercial bank has decided to establish a branch in this busy part of the suva - nausori corridor. it makes good business sense for westpac to establish a branch here. westpac is the only bank branch for kilometers in any direction. your customers must be glad that they don ’ t have to travel far towards suva or nausori for their banking services. i am told that this is a fully - fledged branch which offers a dynamic business centre complete with an interview room and a separate business teller ’ s area. the new branch will cater not only for businesses, but also residents