banks, set up in gms countries. atm connectivity has also been established between thailand and myanmar and between thailand and laos to facilitate cross - border money transfer. like other areas of regional connectivity, there is a need to upgrade financial connectedness to support closer economic relations among the gms. for today, let me highlight three key areas that thailand will pursue in this endeavor. the first one is to strengthen cross - border banking networks. with regard to the banking sector, the bank of thailand aims to further liberalize banking activities by broadening cross - border banking networks. we encourage thai commercial banks to further expand their regional presence to support businesses operating in the gms. in addition, we fully support foreign banks to use thailand as a springboard to expand their businesses into the subregion. recently, bank of tokyo - mitsubishi acquired a microfinance bank in cambodia, using bank of ayudhya as such a springboard ; and in 2014, cimbthai bank set up its first branch in vientiane. moreover, the bank of thailand has been relaxing regulations to further accommodate investors in the gms. we will allow them to take loans from thai banks for direct investment in the gms without a cap. we also lifted the cap on outflows of transporting baht in cash to gms countries from half a million to two million baht per trip. in this connection, we have now started to see the results of the increased flexibility, which helps multinational corporations to establish treasury centers and international headquarters in thailand. as of now, there are 13 companies holding treasury center licenses, of which 4 have been granted in the past 3 months, with one more awaiting approval from the ministry of finance. many more have also made inquiries, which i am pleased to see. the second area is to foster the growth of regional capital markets. apart from the banking sector, well - developed capital markets are critical to nurture sustainable development of financial interconnections. in this light, thailand is playing a proactive role to enhance our capital market capacity, aiming to link up gms capital markets with global investors. firms from the gms 7 can raise funds through the thai capital market to facilitate their businesses, while global investors can invest in products with gms exposure. as i mentioned earlier, we have seen successful and fast - selling baht bonds, issued in thailand by the lao government and corporates. a few years ago, we allowed companies operating in the gms to be

principle both raise asset prices and increase the growth of broad measures of money, which may in turn induce households and businesses to buy nonmoney assets or to spend more on goods and services. in a quantitative - easing regime, the quantity of central bank liabilities ( or the quantity of bank reserves, which should vary closely with total liabilities ) is sufficient to describe the degree of policy accommodation. although the federal reserve's approach also entails substantial increases in bank liquidity, it is motivated less by the desire to increase the liabilities of the federal reserve than by the need to address dysfunction in specific credit markets through the types of programs i have discussed. for lack of a better term, i have called this approach " credit easing. " 11 in a crediteasing regime, policies are tied more closely to the asset side of the balance sheet than the liability side, and the effectiveness of policy support is measured by indicators of market functioning, such as interest rate spreads, volatility, and market liquidity. in particular, the federal reserve has not attempted to achieve a smooth growth path for the size of its balance sheet, a common feature of the quantitative - easing approach. exit strategy my colleagues at the federal reserve and i believe that accommodative policies will likely be warranted for an extended period. at some point, however, as economic recovery takes hold, we will need to tighten monetary policy to prevent the emergence of an inflation problem down the road. looking at the federal reserve's balance sheet is useful, once again, in helping to understand key elements of the federal reserve's exit strategy from its current policies ( slide 7 ). as we just saw in slide 6, banks currently hold large amounts of excess reserves at the federal reserve. as the economy recovers, banks could find it profitable to be more aggressive in lending out their reserves, which in turn would produce faster growth in broader money and credit measures and, ultimately, lead to inflation pressures. as such, when the time comes to tighten monetary policy, we must either substantially reduce excess reserve balances or, if they remain, neutralize their potential effects on broader measures of money and credit and thus on aggregate demand and inflation. see ben s. bernanke ( 2009 ), " the crisis and the policy response, " speech delivered at the stamp lecture, london school of economics, london, england, january 13 ; and ben s. bernanke ( 2009 ), " federal reserve policies to