stress tests are to be developed for lfcs. in addition, a country - wide assessment of household indebtedness is to be carried out. over the year, the central bank has been actively involved in the adoption and implementation of measures that will not only strengthen the payment and settlement infrastructure but also facilitate the transition to a less - cash dependent society. during 2018, we will monitor the implementation of the national card scheme to facilitate introduction of low cost payment card products such as those pertaining to public transport and social benefit schemes. with the increased permeation of fintech products, a regulatory framework is to be established detailing compliance requirements for such products and their usage. further, as has been seen in recent times, cyber security is a threat to the stability and credibility of our financial sector. steps have already been taken not only to strengthen the security of the central bank but also to ensure that the core systems of banks and other financial institutions are also rigorously safeguarded. in this regard, the central bank is promoting the adoption of the payment application data security standard ( padss ) for payment applications that may come into operation in the future. we will mandate real - time sms / e - mail alerts for transactions made through debit / credit cards, internet banking and mobile phone based banking. two - factor authentication will be adopted for point of sales ( pos ) transactions, internet banking as well as all on - line and mobile third - party fund transfers. further, following policies will be adopted to facilitate modernisation of the payment and settlement system infrastructure : the central bank is in the process of acquiring a dynamic state of the art real time gross settlement ( rtgs ) system for facilitating and monitoring of real time large value fund transfers for the participating institutions. in order to safeguard customers and the financial system as a whole and to ensure smooth operations of mobile phone based e - money systems, the central bank will continue its on - site and off - site supervision of these systems. to enable a secure channel for e - commerce trading and internet payment gateways, the central bank, as the regulator, will continuously monitor and provide guidance in the form of standards for e - commerce trading service providers in order to safeguard the interests of the general public. policies will be adopted to reduce cheque usage in sri lanka by means of converting to digital payment mechanisms / method. the central bank will facilitate and promote private and government institutions to effect payments through any electronic retail payment system. as blockchain technology plays

, the usually conservative multi - lateral “ watchdogs ”, rating agencies and experienced academics could not realize, let alone predict, that the world ’ s financial system was fast reaching breaking point! perhaps, from everyone ’ s point of view, the going was too good to obstruct ; the expansion was too exciting to discourage ; the resulting luxuries and wealth were too wonderful to hold back. no wonder therefore, that the financial world continued to happily tootle along this unrealistic path, at break - neck speed. logically, the accident had to happen, and happen it did, and what an accident that was! a crash landing that was sudden and unbelievably disastrous, not only to the developed world, but to all economies of the globe! mr. chairman, the events of the recent past clearly suggest to us that the world ’ s financial and economic communities have, albeit unintentionally, placed the entire civilized world ’ s systems and structures at intense risk, and perhaps even endangered the gains of civilization built over several centuries. however, to the eternal credit of the world ’ s political and economic leaders, we could be relieved that we have been able to face that shock and emerge out of it, bruised and battered no doubt, but fortunately, with our systems still reasonably intact. nevertheless, the major down - turn suffered by the world economy as a result of these shocks is yet to be fully overcome. the tight liquidity crunch that is suffocating our credit markets ; the stubborn toxic assets that won ’ t go away ; the suspicions with which banking and financial institutions view each other, are yet continuing, although there are signs of some abatement. the embarrassing summersaults that various governments had to perform by unceremoniously ditching some of their most sacred and fundamental policies, have also been better understood, by many communities. now, what is needed is to move forward decisively within this new paradigm. to do so effectively, we have to essentially place some barriers to deal with unsustainable risk taking. the freedom of the wild ass that supported unfettered and reckless economic actions to create things out of nothing has to be dealt with. at the same time, we need to revisit some of the fallacies that developed over the last decade or so, including those that indirectly said : “ don ’ t worry too much about a few bubbles ” ; “ markets are always right ”, “ innovation should