burhanuddin abdullah : globalization, financial stability and regional cooperation keynote address by mr burhanuddin abdullah, governor of bank indonesia, at the 33rd asean banking council meeting, bali, 10 october 2003. * * * mr. secretary general, mr. chairman, distinguished officers and members of the asean banking council, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and assalamu ’ alaikum wr. wb it is indeed a great pleasure for me to welcome all of you to this beautiful island of bali and to open this meeting today. it is also a most gratifying experience to speak before a large gathering of distinguished representatives of bankers association from the 10 asean nations. your presence here is an opportunity to further enhance cooperation among bankers to promote regional growth in a new global environment. as we all may aware, globalization is a reality and no country in the world is immune to its impact. it has opened up tremendous opportunities, but it has also posed a wide range of challenges and risks. we must therefore strive to maximize the benefits of globalization while endeavouring to minimize the costs. our experiences in the past crisis has shown that even the most dynamic economies are vulnerable. in spite of the judicious macroeconomic policies that we adopted and the structural adjustments that we carried out, the development gains that we earned over decades could crumble in the span of a few weeks. the severe crisis proved that our banking system had some structural weaknesses. those weaknesses had led most of the asean countries banking system into deep trouble, reflecting in the mounting amount of non performing loan, serious liquidity problems, huge amount of losses and eventually caused many banks to became insolvent. in the face of these realities, the asean banking industry has rightly responded to restore the solvency and the stability of the banking system, through banking restructuring program, and improvement of banking supervisory and regulatory capability. ladies and gentlemen, this crisis may be abating, but greater challenges still lie ahead. the challenges that we are going to faced, first is the heightened competition among banks that requires bankers to make the basic strategic decision. as financial modernization going forward, bankers will be forced to decide what kind of institution they want to be. bankers need to figure out where they want to be in terms of a whole spectrum of activities whether they want to be a local bank, regional, or global bank. the second is a challenge of effective risk mitigation and risk intermediation. we have to ask how do we keep

roger w ferguson, jr : the proposed check clearing for the 21st century act speech by mr roger w ferguson, jr, vice - chairman of the board of governors of the us federal reserve system, before the subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer credit of the committee on financial services, u. s. house of representatives, 25 september 2002. * * * i would like to thank the subcommittee for inviting me to discuss h. r. 5414, the proposed check clearing for the 21st century act. this bill, which is similar to a proposal the board sent to congress late last year, removes existing legal barriers to the use of new technology in check processing and holds the promise of a more efficient check collection system. the board commends representatives ferguson and ford for introducing this bill. technological advances in check processing check processing is far more efficient than it once was. less than fifty years ago, clerks hand sorted millions of checks each day. in the 1960s, the banking industry began to use mechanical high - speed check processing equipment to read and sort checks, which had been redesigned for automated processing. today, banks, thrifts, and credit unions, which i will collectively refer to as banks, process the more than 40 billion checks that consumers, businesses, and the government write each year. legal impediments, however, have prevented the banking industry from fully using these new electronic technologies, such as digital imaging, to improve check processing efficiency and provide improved services to customers. this is because existing law requires that the original paper checks be presented for payment unless the banks involved agree otherwise. we can see how this requirement constrains technological adoption by following a check through the collection process. after a bank's customer deposits a check with his or her bank, the bank typically transports the check from the branch or atm where it was deposited to a central operations center. the check is then usually sent to one or more intermediaries - - such as a federal reserve bank or a correspondent bank - - or a clearinghouse for collection before it is ultimately delivered to the bank on which it is drawn for payment. during each step of this process, the check must be physically shipped to its destination by air or ground transportation. of course, banks can agree to accept checks electronically, but the large number of banks in the united states makes it infeasible for any one bank to obtain such agreements from all other banks or even a large proportion of them. therefore, legal changes are needed to facilitate