##que payment, which means greater privacy protection. for those payees who have more than one account, he can also enjoy the flexibility of deciding which account to deposit an e - cheque into. vi. corporates and institutions which issue a huge volume of paper cheques can save substantial sums on printing, processing and mailing those cheques. in hong kong, listed companies process over 2 million physical cheques each year for dividend payments. both paper consumption and mailing costs can be reduced substantially each year if shareholders agree switchinig to e - cheques to receive these payments. looking forward 4. the e - cheque is only at the beginning of its development. the hkma will continue to explore ways of expanding its application in two areas, namely : bis central bankers ’ speeches i. cross - border transactions – we will explore with the guangzhou and shenzhen branches of the people ’ s bank of china, and the monetary authority of macao with a view to promoting the use and clearing of cross - border e - cheques. ii. development of e - commerce – we will explore with the banking industry the use of echeques in supporting e - commerce portals. while offering an additional option of payment for online shoppers, e - cheques can also increase the efficiency of ecommerce operations. acknowledgments 5. the launch of the e - cheque reflects the continuous effort of banks in hong kong to provide a wide range of payment services. it also signifies the hkma ’ s commitment in promoting the efficiency and modernisation of hong kong's financial infrastructure. besides, the smooth development and launch of the e - cheque has benefited immensely from the great support of relevant government departments. i. firstly, amendments to the electronic transactions ordinance were finalised by the office of the government chief information officer in early 2015, giving electronic cheques the same legal status as physical cheques. the pay e - cheque portal was also launched on 7 december, which allows the public to make payments of government bills and fees with e - cheques. ii. the inland revenue department became the first government department to participate in the pay e - cheque portal, providing a convenient and easy option for paying tax demand notes, business registration fees, and stamp duties as well as purchasing tax reserve certificates. iii. lastly, the treasury has also actively helped promote the acceptance by other government departments of e - cheques in paying general demand notes. 6. i would like

we have already begun this process in order to implement the regulation of new technologies rationally, protecting the markets from risks. at the beginning of this speech i mentioned the strategic objectives of the bank of russia. these are our key priorities. you may have noticed that the tasks we set ourselves four years ago and those for the year 2016, which i have been speaking about today, as well as challenges of the future, are all, of course, related to each other. we consider it to be very important to respect the principles of continuity, consistency and predictability. we will no doubt be responding with flexibility to any given situation. the situation is volatile, there is a lot of uncertainty in the world. we will have to react in accordance with the challenges presented to us. but the consistency of our policy, i think, is very important. the preservation of trust is vital to development, as well as to financial markets. this is a key category – trust in the financial market and trust in monetary policy have been the most influential factors in terms of economic growth. we view our policy as part of an overall economic policy aimed at creating conditions for sustainable long - term economic growth in our country. thank you very much! 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches