banks operating in our jurisdiction. it allowed what formerly were offshore banks to interact actively with the domestic money and foreign exchange markets and with the domestic economy in general. cross - border banking activities decisively picked up. the bank of mauritius act and the banking act were both overhauled and suitably recast to meet emerging regulatory challenges. previously, quite some prudential norms set by the bank of mauritius used to be introduced by way of regulations made by the minister of finance. they sometimes used to be lobbied against in the halls of government. by making the guidelines legal in the bank of mauritius act 2004, the bank does not have to have recourse to government for issuing guidelines to banks and is therefore free pressures from the banking industry and other related parties. so far, the bank of mauritius has issued 35 guidelines to the banking industry. they all have authority. as the financial integration accelerated, cross - border banking activities also accelerated in the 1990s. today, cross - border banking activities account for 60 per cent of our banking industry ’ s businesses. total banking assets are around 300 per cent of our gdp. the risks and vulnerabilities to our financial industry and the economy are by no means negligible. since the beginning of the new millennium, the bank of mauritius took a number of regulatory and supervisory initiatives a few of which are as follows : 1. the bank entered into mous on cross border supervision and information sharing with 16 of its counterparts. the mous set forth a statement of intent between the bank and its counterparts to establish a framework for mutual assistance, cooperation and exchange of information in the fulfilment of the institutions ’ respective supervisory responsibilities ; 2. the banking act allows for cross border cooperation in terms of group audit from parent bank of the subsidiaries and branches of foreign banks in mauritius ; 3. besides carrying out onsite examination of overseas subsidiaries of local banks, the bank has also engaged with its foreign counterparts to carry out joint examinations of entities falling under its purview. the banking act allows host supervisors to conduct examinations of banks in our jurisdiction ; 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches 4. two years ago a huge financial conglomerate failed in mauritius. the bank of mauritius act and the banking act were amended to enhance both consolidated and conglomerate supervision ; 5. the bank of mauritius attends the supervisory colleges of almost all the subsidiaries and branches of foreign banks operating in our jurisdiction. the bank has a policy of holding supervisory colleges for the two largest domestic banks that have

s research, “ the concept of a recognized dealer was somewhat amorphous. an october 1939 bank memo remarked that the term was ‘ not an exact appellation ’ and noted that ‘ the principal factors which we consider in extending such recognition are ( 1 ) reputation for integrity, experience, and knowledge, ( 2 ) capital at risk of the business, ( 3 ) willingness to make markets under all ordinary conditions and to take positions both long and short, and ( 4 ) large volume [ of business ] of national scope, with the contacts which such trading provides. ’ ” ( garbade, the early years of the primary dealer system, pp. 8 – 9 ). bis central bankers ’ speeches in the early 1960s, a reporting dealer regime was created, featuring reporting on positions and a public list of the firms that communicated various data to the new york fed. during the 1980s, in considering new firms for primary dealer designation, desk staff increasingly looked for evidence that a firm had a certain share of total customer trading activity. the working threshold was generally 1 percent, with some fluctuations in this level over time. an explicit requirement for primary dealers to participate in treasury debt auctions was added in the mid1980s. in 1992, following the salomon brothers treasury auction scandal, the desk altered its primary dealer requirements and ended its dealer surveillance program, in an effort to eliminate the perception that it had a regulatory relationship with primary dealers and to encourage more firms to become primary dealers. nevertheless, over the following decade, the list of primary dealers contracted, largely as a result of declining profitability and industry consolidation in the mid - 1990s as well as the departure of some japanese financial institutions following losses in their home market. the number of primary dealers declined further with the failure and / or consolidation of several large dealers during the recent financial crisis, but has begun to grow slowly again in subsequent years. the last revision of our primary dealer operating policy, published in 2010, formalized a pro rata treasury auction bidding requirement for all primary dealers, which requires primary dealers to bid for their proportional share of each treasury offering. 11 relative to domestic open market operations and auctions for primary treasury issuance, foreign market operations undertaken with private counterparties to further foreign exchange policy and the investment of foreign reserves are relatively small and infrequent and have a somewhat shorter history. the fed first undertook very limited foreign exchange ( sterling ) purchases in the market during the late 1920s and early 1930s in an effort to