scale. this will require the satisfactory resolution of three issues : 1. uniformity of legislation and regulation ; 2. appropriate technology ; and 3. the question of ownership. if our financial sector in the region is to reach its full potential the rules under which it operates must not be so widely different that they become more of an obstacle course than a facilitator of innovation and development. the amazing thing about the caribbean is how seriously we take our insularity. we come to the table with ingrained notions of how different we are, and argue vehemently about points which are in the wider scheme of things, singularly unimportant except to the protagonist who has been charged with protecting national pride and sovereignty with his life. on a less serious note, and this being trinidad where picong is a way of life, can you imagine a jamaican, trinidadian or barbadian conceding an argument to someone from the oecs and living to tell the tale! we must recognise that in a rule based environment, when there is the need for progress, the rules must be uniform and simple. once there are deviations and exceptions, rules become restrictions and not what they should be, that is, sign posts to allow progress to be made. the utilisation of technology is a critical factor in the evolution and development of the financial sector. the ability to connect across long distances and the necessity to handle large volumes of transactions at high speeds is the rationale for the use of technology. for our region, where face to face meetings are costly, both in terms of time and money, other means of communication through video and teleconferencing are important constructs for our progress. we must invest significantly in technology if we are going to be successful. ownership is a critical factor in any integration arrangement. integration in a fundamental way has to do with the allocation of productive resources and the distribution of benefits across countries. in a situation where capital and labour cannot move, benefits only accrue to the country or place where productive resources are located. if labour and capital can move freely then labour in a country where the productive resource is not located, can move to that location, and the benefits can be spread in that way. with the movement of capital, individuals can purchase shares in the enterprise and enjoy benefits while not being resident. this means of sharing benefits through the financial sector is much more palatable in the first instance and therefore stakes out a special place for

##findahl - hirschman indices, which is a standard way of measuring concentration. the lower the index, the lower the level of concentration and the more diverse is the set of issuers. [ 4 ] in 2017, the index for non - financial corporations hit its lowest – most diverse – levels for some time ( graph 9 ). there was an uptick in concentration in 2018, but it is still at relatively low levels. https : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2019 / sp - ag - 2019 - 03 - 19. html 9 / 19 3 / 19 / 2019 bonds and benchmarks | speeches | rba graph 9 rmbs in 2018, non - banks issued the second largest amount of rmbs since the gfc, only narrowly eclipsed by 2017 issuance ( graph 10 ). this was associated with strong growth of non - bank housing loans, as they gained some market share from banks. spreads widened in line with other markets, although spreads for non - conforming deals appear to have widened a little more than for other deals. https : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2019 / sp - ag - 2019 - 03 - 19. html 10 / 19 3 / 19 / 2019 bonds and benchmarks | speeches | rba graph 10 the noticeable rise in the share of new mortgages extended by non - banks over recent years reflects, in part, earlier regulatory actions limiting the growth of banks'investor and interest - only mortgages. banks'tighter lending standards in light of the royal commission have also had an effect on their lending activity over the past year. not only did this change in the banks'behaviour contribute to the strong growth of non - bank lending, it may also have contributed to the shift in the nature of the collateral underlying the nonbank securitisation deals. we can use the reserve bank's securitisation dataset to see three key changes. [ 5 ] first, the share of investor loans in non - bank securitisations has increased over the past few years ( graph 11 ). second, their share of interest - only loans has remained relatively high, in contrast to the share of interest - only loans in banks'securitisations. third, the level of seasoning in non - bank deals has also fallen ( graph 12 ). in other words, their loans are newer than in the past and newer than for the bank securitisations.