savers. savers would only put their money in banks if they are confident that it will be there when they need it. in turn, the banks will lend this money to the borrowers when they are certain that it will get repaid. so at the end of it all, money goes around and everyone is happy. when we examine our financial system in these terms of soundness and efficiency, we can see that we have come a long way in the last ten years. fiji voluntarily subjected its financial system to a financial sector assessment program by a joint international monetary fund and world bank mission in 2006. this comprehensive study while pointing out several improvements, confirmed that fiji ’ s financial system is sound. with the implementation of these recommendations, we can look ahead confidently to a financial system that is even more versatile in fiji. this augurs well for businesses, investment and growth. at this stage, i wish to clarify that the reserve bank regulates and supervises only the financial institutions that we licensed. these currently include commercial banks, insurance companies, credit companies and foreign exchange dealers. we have added the fiji national provident fund to the list since 2003. the key intention of this supervision is to protect depositors, the policy holders, members and the financial system as a whole. there are some finance companies that we do not license and we do not therefore supervise. we have put out an advertisement to this effect. we advised the public to exercise caution when investing with finance companies that are not licensed by the reserve bank. the bank will take appropriate legal action against unlicensed finance companies that are found to be carrying out banking business in fiji. banking business is generally defined as accepting deposits from the public. one key issue that we monitor closely in our supervision is the quality of the financial institution ’ s loan book together with the provisioning level that they have allowed. i am pleased to say that despite the economic downturn this year, the quality of the industry ’ s assets remains intact with more than adequate provisioning. at the same time credit growth has slowed markedly. this is again good from the point of financial stability and soundness. efficiency on the other hand very much depends on modernisation, technology and competition. we have seen several initiatives in technology and modernisation on both the individual bank level and the industry wide level. at the individual bank level, we now enjoy modern banking services like eftpos, internet and phone banking and atms. we can also send money anywhere in the

, visitors and workers of the surrounding business area. the branch services will include international money transfer service, moneygram. the nakasi branch, like the port denarau one, has a modern look and feel and even features a telephone and internet banking kiosk in - branch for customers who wish to access westpac ’ s internet or telephone banking services. westpac has a long and proud history, serving the fiji islands for the last 106 years. the bank of new south wales, westpac ’ s forerunner is fiji ’ s longest continuing bank as well as the first australian bank to open a branch in fiji on 12 august 1901. it has grown from a 3staff operation in 1901 to an operational network of 19 banking ( branch and agency ) sites offering a full range of retail, commercial and corporate products. we can all agree that westpac has played a valuable role in advancing fiji ’ s financial system and also its economic development through its services, innovative products and the latest banking technology. concluding remarks finally, i would like to thank mr. john cashmore and ms margaret deveau for their kind invitation. westpac ’ s recent progress has been interesting with their association with moneygram, american express as well as the opening of 2 branches within 3 ½ months with another one in the pipeline soon. i again congratulate john, margaret and the westpac team on the opening of the nakasi branch in fiji. i also wish westpac all the best in its future endeavours. official opening i now have much pleasure in declaring this nakasi branch of westpac open. thank you.