- net is functioning properly. " triggered by this call, the staff resumed their work to continue business operations. financial institutions make massive fund transfers with each other via the boj - net every day. 7 if you compare money to the blood of japan's economy, the shutdown of the boj - net means the absence of blood flow in the economy. the bank made the following responses at the time. firstly, 15 minutes after the earthquake occurred, it set up a disaster management team headed by the governor. the team gathered information concerning the damage, coordinated with government and other relevant parties, and disseminated information domestically and internationally on the operational status of the bank's offices and financial markets. bank of japan payment and settlement systems department, " higashi nihon daishinsai chokugo no kin'yu kessai - men no doko : deta ni motozuku jijitsu seiri, " boj reports & research papers, march 2013, http : / / www. boj. or. jp / research / brp / ron _ 2013 / data / ron130311a. pdf. 7 the value of fund transfers settled via the boj - net were about 150 trillion yen on average every business day in fiscal 2018. as march 11 was a friday, the bank's branches and offices in the affected tohoku region continued to supply cash to financial institutions by opening service counters during the weekend. this was to meet the increased cash demand because, once a disaster occurs, people seek to hold more cash on hand out of a need to secure funds for immediate living expenses and out of fears about the future. in times of disaster, demand for cash tends to increase sharply as it performs the two - fold functions of money : a medium of exchange ( i. e., a means of payment ) and a store of value. 8 a few days after the disaster, a massive amount of damaged banknotes and coins were brought to the bank to be exchanged for clean ones. the bank met these requests by sending staff from other parts of japan to help branches in the affected areas. in iwate prefecture, where the bank does not have a branch, we set up a temporary counter at a local financial institution to provide the exchange service. the bank delegates some services to private financial institutions to make payments for public pensions and government workers'salaries, as well as to provide services related to receipts and payments of treasury funds,

strengthening internal control and consolidated management. however, we should not neglect our financial support to the smes, especially to the non - public smes. i very much appreciate the proposals mayor wang just highlighted, and i have more or less some similar viewpoints and would like to summarize as follows : first, financial institutions should be organized in a way more capable of providing financial services to the smes. second, while continuing to provide quality service to the big corporate clients, large banks which are taking a high proportion of the financial markets should also strengthen internal research and establish new department units to improve credit services to the smes. third, large enterprises are more likely to turn to capital market ( equity market and bond market ) to meet their financing needs in the future and this change will exert greater market pressures on the commercial banks. therefore, in order to improve business efficiency, the commercial banks should pay more attention to serving the small and medium - sized clients. fourth, market - based interest rate reform should be promoted. under the leadership of the state council, the people ’ s bank of china has gained important progress in advancing the market - based interest rate reform in recent years. in the days to come, we will continue to deepen the reform process. determining interest rate following market principles will enable the lending institutions to better cover their risks and thus to improve their credit services to the small and medium - sized clients. fifth, as mayor wang just mentioned, great efforts should be made to more effectively promote micro credit business. while the micro credit business has made certain progress in the rural areas, there is still a long way to go before it can meet the financing needs of the rural economy. in recent years, many developing countries in the world have gained useful experiences in growing their micro credit business and some are worth learning. we need to make careful study and research on this matter and advance the micro credit business prudently. sixth, financial products innovation should be encouraged. the financial industry is an industry featuring brisk innovation activities. the frequent change and introduction of new products aim to improve allocation of economic resources and better meet the financing needs of the market. in terms of developing new financial products, we have gained in the past some unsuccessful experiences and lessons which we need to draw from to improve the innovation capacity of the financial institutions. only with improved capability in product innovation, can the financial institutions better serve the financing needs of the smes, the non - public enterprises and the economy of the