vasileios madouros : opening statement - oieachtas select committee on budgetary oversight opening statement by mr vasileios madouros, deputy governor of the central bank of ireland, at the oireachtas select committee on budgetary oversight, dublin, 22 march 2023. * * * good evening chair and members of the committee. my name is vasileios madouros, i am the deputy governor for monetary and financial stability at the central bank. i am joined by my colleagues robert kelly, director of economics and statistics and martin o'brien, head of our irish economic analysis division. thank you for inviting us to appear before the committee this evening. we very much welcome the opportunity to discuss the economic and fiscal outlook with the committee. in my opening statement, i will draw on our latest macroeconomic assessment, published in our quarterly bulletin in early march, and will also cover medium - term challenges for the public finances. it is worth flagging upfront that the projections in the quarterly bulletin were completed before the most recent period of volatility in international financial markets. in light of these developments, there is additional uncertainty around the baseline projections for growth and inflation. as you would expect, the central bank has been monitoring and evaluating global financial market developments, including through close engagement with our european counterparts and, domestically, under the auspices of ireland's financial stability group. the irish and euro area banking sector is resilient to a wide range of potential adverse shocks, with strong capital and liquidity positions. moreover, as the ecb president remarked last week, the eurosystem stands ready to respond as necessary to preserve price stability and financial stability in the euro area. 1 medium - term economic and fiscal outlook while macroeconomic conditions are still challenging, primarily due to the continued high rate of inflation, the irish economy overall has proven resilient. indeed, recent activity levels have been somewhat stronger than we would have expected going into the winter months. modified domestic demand ( mdd ) is estimated to have grown by 8. 2 per cent in 2022, driven by a particularly strong recovery in the first half of the year. in the second half of 2022, the economy slowed significantly, as the economic effects of higher inflation began to take hold, limiting households'purchasing power and business sentiment. we expect the two distinct halves of last year to be reversed in 2023. as inflation moderates over the course of the year, we

the bahamian payment system modernisation : advancing financial inclusion initiatives by john a rolle * governor * as prepared for delivery. central bank of the bahamas blockchain seminar 18 march 2019 introduction inclusive of a digital version of the bahamian dollar, the central bank of the bahamas has defined several evolved objectives for the bahamian payments systems. on some levels the bahamas is positioned to use new technology to accelerate this transformation. it brings into focus the need for new policies and regulatory reforms to address best practices in the digital supply of financial services, consumer protection in its multifaceted forms, cyber security, and more. there are multiple, complementary objectives within our digitisation and reform initiatives. these include : making the payments system more efficient. using technology to achieve more inclusive, cost affordable, even access to financial services, across all islands of the bahamas ; providing access that avoids discrimination on the basis of immigration or residency status. strengthening national defenses against uses of the financial services infrastructure for money laundering and other illicit ends ; including activities that thrive more easily in cash intensive environments. selected payments system indicators by international standards, the bahamas has a very developed financial system. however, the averages obscure gaps in who have access to services over our disperse geography, and the 1 | page inefficiencies that constrain services delivery. 12 banking presence is sporadic on the family islands, and absent altogether in a few cases. 3 at the national level, trends point to increasing use of electronic payments ( see box 1 ), but anecdotally the costs of settling transactions is a drag on the speed of change. 4 cost aside, accelerated change could be also encouraged through increased comfort around accepting and making digital payments ; and placing these capabilities universally within the reach of more consumers. 5 in 2018, the central bank conducted a baseline survey on financial literacy and garnered metrics that speak to financial inclusion, along the lines of templates used for the oecd countries ( table1 ). although this survey does not capture what is happening among undocumented persons, it indicates a high degree of awareness and high degree of access to basic deposit facilities in the bahamas. just above 90 percent of the respondents had knowledge of savings accounts and debit cards. yet, only about 80 percent of such persons had use of a savings account. 6 only about 70 percent of these individuals used a debit card ; and fewer than half possessed a credit card. improvements must be sought in all of these estimates, along with much higher rates