term used by currency traders for the united states dollar - sterling exchange rate ; it relates to a nineteenth century undersea communications cable used to transmit key financial information across the atlantic ocean ; and american express, the financial services multinational, began as an express mail business. recognising the historical context, it should be little surprise that financial and communications regulators must in many cases operate in tandem, while adopting smart and costeffective ways to deal with risks. today, given the current, dizzying, pace of ict development, it is more crucial than ever that central banks and financial sector regulators are alive to these trends. this adds a further dimension to the challenge, in both developing and developed economies, of finding the right balance between being, on the one hand, a prudential regulator and, on the other, development. a facilitator for market the latter goal is something to which the bank of botswana is unreservedly committed. as i have observed elsewhere, informed repeatedly research has indicated a causal connection between financial sector development, economic growth and poverty reduction. however, in many sub - saharan african countries, botswana included, financial systems remain mostly small, fragmented and un - diversified, providing only limited services to an exclusive section of the population at a relatively high cost. equally, while botswana ’ s financial sector is comparable in size to other countries in the region ; it remains relatively smaller and less developed compared to that of its middle - income peers. notwithstanding, during the past ten years, botswana financial sector has expanded rapidly, both in size and the range of services covered. in this period, cumulative growth of the financial sector, in real terms, has been almost exactly 100 percent, compared to 52 percent for the economy as a whole. a major driving force in this development has been the rapid growth of the domestic pension fund industry. indeed the role played by the financial sector in supporting inclusive and sustainable economic growth was the central theme of the 2017 bank of botswana annual report. distinguished ladies and gentlemen, in broad terms, how should we go about addressing this challenge? here, i start by making an obvious, but nonetheless important, point. a well - functioning, liquid and regulated market is good for development. it gives both investors and consumers confidence that their interests are protected in an industry where information asymmetries remain a chronic problem. at the same time, regulation can help confer legitimacy on regulated service providers. as central bank governor, i should also extend this point

to meet its mandate. we therefore congratulate this sub - committee on the progress made and we in the region sincerely thank the bank of jamaica for their efforts. there is no doubt that consolidated supervision with the attendant impact on our ability as a region to adhere to the new accord is indeed a challenge. in the meantime our institutions continue to become more complex raising the issues of potential contagion and the effective management of systemic and liquidity risks. the need for specialists in our supervision departments to deal with these and other emerging complexities such as financial modeling, is a matter that we must address as a region. as i conclude my address, i would like to leave you with an update on the developments that are currently taking place in trinidad and tobago and which will certainly have an impact on the region as a whole. the financial sector of trinidad and tobago is considered robust as it has been experiencing an uninterrupted period of positive economic growth over the last decade due primarily to the increased activity in the energy sector. however, there is an element of caution being expressed by both the private and public sectors that this is the time to put in place updated regulatory and preventative measures to ensure that potential risk exposures in the financial system are significantly minimized. it is clear that the government is adopting a proactive approach to ensure that we do not have a repeat of what took place in the 1980 ’ s when we experienced the collapse of several financial institutions in trinidad and tobago. as a result of the foregoing, legislative reform is a critical aspect of a white paper being developed to ensure that trinidad and tobago attains first world status by 2020. as i mentioned previously, the central bank has assumed the role of regulator of the insurance industry. the vision is for a single regulator. in the interim a regulatory council is being established which will provide for cooperation amongst the various regulators. whilst legislative reform is critical to address the complexities of the financial sector, other aspects such as the strengthening of corporate governance, promoting market discipline and transparency are critical. it is with this in mind that the central bank of trinidad and tobago has developed several guidelines which include corporate governance and fit and proper assessment for both banks and insurance companies. finally, i would like to say that globalization is affecting us all and as we live in the same hemispheric region i am sure that our latin american supervisory colleagues present here today are experiencing similar situations as i have expressed today. we therefore need to work together by sharing our