rundheersing bheenick : otc sales to the public remarks by mr rundheersing bheenick, governor of the bank of mauritius, at the launching ceremony of the over - the - counter sale of treasury bills / treasury notes at the new headquarters of the bank of mauritius, port louis, 24 july 2007. * * * distinguished guests of the financial community chairman of the mauritius bankers association ltd our first customers to the otc sales ladies and gentlemen i am grateful that you are all here with us this morning to share the launching ceremony of the over - the - counter ( otc ) sales to the public. the reasons for which we are re - launching the sale of treasury bills and treasury notes directly to the public are manifold. as you would already know, the honourable rama krishna sithanen, deputy prime minister, minister of finance and economic development announced in his 2007 / 08 budget speech that the bank of mauritius will re - launch the retail sale of treasury bills / treasury notes directly to the public. this practice had been stopped for some time. you would also have no doubt noted that saving performance of the country has been doing downhill. the saving rate fell from 22. 6 per cent in 2004 to hardly above 16 per cent in 2007 and this at a time when secondary market sales are open and the stock exchange has been encouraged by the central bank to offer government papers directly to the public. just to provide you with an indication of this low performance, the sale of government of mauritius treasury bills and treasury notes through stock broking companies on the stock market have amounted to a grand total of barely above rs1 million in july 2007. so, we thought we need to do something to stop the decline and encourage our savers to invest in treasury instruments. we thought we have to work on ways to stimulate the development of the secondary market for government securities and provide an additional investment opportunity to individual investors. for these reasons, we are offering this morning a whole range of instruments ranging from short - dated treasury bills to 4 - year paper. these instruments will give us a term structure and also an indication of the appetite of our savers for papers of different maturities. furthermore, primary bidders and dealers will have a better feel of where the market is heading. we are today logging quite a few firsts. let me mention a few of them : • today, for the first time members of public are having access to the banking hall of the new headquarters building • today,

at the level of the bank of mauritius, our approach has been characterized by an open door and open dialogue policy. we are ever ready to have an open dialogue with correspondent banks to explain the supervisory framework in mauritius and give reassurance on its robustness. aml / cft is one of the key priorities for mauritius and the bank of mauritius. as you are certainly aware, the mutual evaluation report ( mer ) of the assessment of the aml / cft measures of mauritius was published by the eastern and southern africa anti - money laundering group ( esaamlg ) in september 2018. the mer revealed that mauritius had not done enough to keep up with the changes which the fatf brought in 2012 to the international standards on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation. following the revision of the fatf recommendations in 2012, the assessment of compliance with the fatf recommendations is not limited to technical compliance and the forty recommendations made. it also involves an assessment of the effectiveness of a country ’ s aml / cft systems with a view to ascertaining whether the country ’ s “ financial systems and the broader economy are protected from the threats of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, thereby strengthening financial sector integrity and contributing to safety and security. ” i must say that even before the publication of the mauritius mer in september 2018, mauritius had already started bringing legislative amendments to various pieces of legislation — including the financial intelligence and anti - money laundering act and the banking laws — to address the deficiencies. new regulations were promulgated under the financial intelligence and anti - money laundering act in october 2018, which mirrored the provisions of the fatf recommendations. following these legislative changes, mauritius submitted an application for technical compliance re - rating of 12 recommendations, among which 11 were successfully upgraded. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches just last week¹, two new pieces of legislations were voted at the national assembly. these are the united nations ( financial prohibitions, arms embargo and travel ban ) sanctions bill, and the anti - money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism and proliferation ( miscellaneous provisions ) bill. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ¹ tuesday 21 may 2019 the legislation reinforces the arsenal of mauritius in the fight against financial crimes. they will support the country ’ s second application for technical compliance rerating on 20 fatf recommendations. these are clear testament of the progress made