sada reddy : improving access to money in fiji address by mr sada reddy, deputy governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the official opening of anz atm no. 70, nasese, 5 august 2008. * * * mr. robert, bell, general manager anz bank management and staff of anz bank distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen introductory remarks good morning to you all i would like to thank the anz bank for the kind invitation to open this new atm, their 70th to date. it is certainly an honour for me to be part of another milestone in anz ’ s history and growth in fiji. it is always encouraging to see banks in fiji expanding their services through opening new branches and atms. such developments bring banking services closer to the people and the community. in this regard, i congratulate anz for their long term commitment to fiji and to the economy of fiji. anz bank in fiji let me say a few words on anz ’ s history in fiji. anz ’ s association with fiji goes back to the 1800 ’ s when the union bank of australia, an ancestor of anz, began operations in levuka in 1880. as you know, levuka then was the capital of fiji. when suva was established as the capital, anz opened a branch here in 1883. for various reasons, anz withdrew from fiji by 1895. however it re - established operations in fiji in 1951. since then, of course, anz has grown from strength to strength. today anz bank in fiji has many points of representation - 16 branches, 2 prime banking sites. 2 business centres, 831 electronic merchants countrywide, 734 eftpos terminals, 24 / 7 phonebanking and internet services, banking facilities within the concourse and transit lounge of nadi international airport and an agency at nausori airport and is deeply involved with mobile rural banking services. anz is the largest bank in fiji with total assets of $ 1. 6 billion and forms 40 percent of the total banking system. anz ’ s rural banking let me say a few words about anz ’ s rural banking services. anz started its rural banking services in october 2004. to date, this business has grown substantially from almost nothing to $ 7 million in deposits. total lending is approaching $ 1 million. the customer base was more than 50, 000 as at end march 2008. through mobile banking trucks, anz services the rural areas of tail

come cheaply but it is the price that people know that they have to pay for the protection of their physical properties. 3. in the cyber world, just like the real world, there are plenty of risks and dangers. financial crimes will occur whenever there is money to be made and for sure criminals and hackers alike will use their best endeavours to penetrate the defence of the cyber world to rob or steal. the strength of the cyber world also lies its main weakness. hackers can choose to attack customers and financial firms any time and anywhere because the virtual world is highly interconnected. cyber attacks can take many different forms. a frequently used method is to make phishing attempts to trick customers into divulging their account information and passwords, or to plant malwares into customers ’ computers and mobile phones to steal their access credentials. then the hackers transfer moneys from the victims ’ accounts. sometimes the hackers would do something unusual, such as the recent example in bis central bankers ’ speeches hong kong in which some customers ’ bank accounts had been used by hackers to conduct unauthorized stock trading without stealing money from the victims ’ accounts. at the bank level, the usual form of attacks would be distributed denial of services ( ddos ), whether they are motivated by blackmail, revenge or activism of some sort. there is a worrying trend that this form of attacks is rising very fast in recent years. cybersecurity fortification initiative 4. rather than harbouring the hope that you are lucky enough not to be targeted, it is more prudent and productive to take the necessary pre - emptive steps to protect yourself or your customers from cyber attacks. cybersecurity is the very foundation of modern banking and without it there is no point for us to boast hong kong as a world class international financial centre. while banks in hong kong have so far had very few incidents of serious cyber attacks, there is no place for complacency if we wish to maintain hong kong ’ s competitive edge as the preferred financial hub in asia. in this connection, the hkma has earlier this year set up a new fintech facilitation office, which has taken cybersecurity as its top priority mission. having worked very closely with the banking industry and other stakeholders, i am very pleased to announce today that the hkma has decided to launch for the banking system a “ cybersecurity fortification initiative ”, which is known as “ cfi ” in