rural population ; bis central bankers ’ speeches • cefi is expected to achieve three major outputs. these include strengthening of financial institutions that implement financial inclusion programmes, training on financial literacy and business development services to build the capacities of clients and micro businesses, and by establishing industry standards by working with network. broadly speaking, cefi will operate through four major verticals – : financial inclusion, financial service delivery, information exchange and gender. • under financial inclusion initiatives, cefi will aim to promote financial inclusion agenda and innovation, co - ordinate and support financial inclusion activities, introduce best practices in the financial sector, promote product and channel innovations such as mobile and agent - based banking, create a talent pipeline for financial inclusion activities and facilitate financial literacy. • cefi will contribute to financial service delivery by working with bpng to develop industry benchmarks, arranging for technical assistance to fis, acting as a centre of excellence and nurturing a network of practitioners and service providers. • cefi ’ s interventions in the direction of information exchange will largely be focussed on building and maintaining a database of technical assistance for regulated and un - regulated microfinance institutions and act as a repository of knowledge and training material. • cefi will also lay special focus on promoting gender equality in the areas of financial services delivery. government support prime minister, the national government support in the establishment and out - scaling of micro - financing, and thereby financial inclusion nationwide into different parts of png, is pleasing. it is also pleasing to see the national government subsidising education so that formal education can reach the rural masses. however, what has been lacking is the development of financial education materials, particularly development of curriculum ( s ) so that “ financial education ” can be mainstreamed to all levels and forms of education and educational institutions in png. i urge the department of education to come forward and work with the bank of png, to actively develop and disseminate important financial education materials to all schools and further financial inclusion. bpng initiatives with students accounts in the meantime, the bank of png has taken some initiatives in working with financial institutions to developing banking products such as student accounts to make available to school - age children. the idea is to enhance savings culture, promote thrift and responsible spending, for children and family settings. thank all for a milestone occasion there is no better time than this present time to see financial inclusion taken to the next level. i want to welcome everyone and thank you all for coming

karnit flug : increasing competition in the financial system to benefit the israeli economy remarks by dr karnit flug, governor of the bank of israel, at the presentation of the strum committee report to the minister of finance and to the governor, tel aviv, 14 december 2015. * * * i would like to thank the committee ’ s members and its chairperson for their comprehensive and professional work in recent months. the bank of israel sees extreme importance in increasing competition in the banking system in particular and in the financial system in general, and toward that end is promoting a series of processes, some in collaboration with the other regulators, in addition to the recommendations discussed here today : • establishing a credit data register, which will reduce information asymmetries between banks and nonbank credit providers and will provide the customer with negotiating power ; • promoting a securitization market, which will allow an increase in the sources of credit and provide a bridge between the capital held by institutional investors and the credit needs of the economy ; • extended implementation of the vast majority of recommendations by the zaken committee to promote competition. the bank of israel supports every process that serves the public, and takes this principle into account in every decision it reaches. therefore, the issues must be examined from a long term perspective, and processes whose negative impact is greater than their benefit and that are liable to pose a risk to the economy should be avoided. we will thus ensure that the reform will bring about the intended changes. there is broad agreement on the need to strengthen the competition in the credit market ’ s household and small businesses segment, and to make it easier for new participants to compete in the merchant acquiring and payment services sector as well. the committee proposes ways to increase the number of participants, to create conditions that will increase competition between participants, to increase the sources available to them, and to ease the connection to the payment and settlement systems. during the formulation of these processes, there is utmost importance to ensuring the protection of financial services consumers, and the stability of new entities, which of course impacts on the stability of the entire system. we must not forget the lessons of the most severe financial crisis in our generation, which was caused by irresponsible measures and inadequate supervision. it is important to remember that in the past three years the balance of consumer credit has increased cumulatively by about 20 percent, and credit to small businesses by about 30 percent. as noted, the report contains very significant steps, which will