the agency will also provide credit counselling and advice on financial management to individual consumers. in the usa, recent initiatives reportedly imply that, since october last year, debt - trapped consumers seeking bankruptcy protection have been forced to undergo credit counseling and financial training. in the u. k., in addition to consumer credit counselling service, citizens advice bureaux and other debt counselling organisations, there is also a national debt line through which a bank customer can get free financial advice. in fact, in the u. k., the banking code provides that member banks shall discuss financial problems with customers and together evolve a plan for resolving these problems. in general, banks in the u. k. have to be prepared to accept an offer of repayment, which is based on the principle of equitable distribution of available income of the customer, in line with the amount outstanding to each creditor. financial education : need for study it has been said, particularly in the context of developed economies that the young do not save enough and do not fully understand the need for investments for future. the middle - aged tend to regret that they did not save when they could afford to. many of the elderly tend to feel the pinch of poverty. in this background, priority is accorded to financial education. for example, in the u. k, the financial services authority is reported to have launched the biggest campaign ever to improve the financial skills of the population. according to a recent report in the u. s, the congress formed a bipartisan financial and economic literacy caucus last year that has, among other things, passed a bill to designate april as the financial literacy month. singapore, hong kong and hungary also have schemes to boost financial training levels, as does finland, where a theatre group puts on plays in high schools about financial education issues. in new zealand there is an official financial - information website with an online game " money island " – while the australian securities and investments commission organises money expos to help investors avoid scams and improve investment choices. it must be admitted that the effectiveness of the literacy programmes has been questioned, partly attributed to the manner in which literacy campaigns are conducted by the regulators. however, the subject needs to be explored further in our country since there is a spurt of new financial products and financial intermediaries, and often, the savers are bewildered by them. the skills for assessing risks and rewards have to be acquired anew as administered interest rate regime and public sector guarantees are

liability to the customer. let me now turn to the issue of technology and cost. before i speak my mind on the issue, let me make it very clear that rbi does not support the argument that cash transactions in this country will disappear rapidly or that all paper based transactions would turn electronic if the financial sector was to offer electronic transactions free of cost. in fact, we firmly believe that anything that is offered free of charge can never be scaled up and that it cannot become bis central bankers ’ speeches robust and efficient unless it offers commercial viability to those who offer the product / service. having said that, i also do not support the principle, ostensibly being followed by some of the institutions, to recover a large part of technology expenses from the customers. i was amused at the action of banks deciding to waive charges on “ inter - core ” transactions hitting headlines in the media. it should have never happened in the first place. in fact, such charges, rather than their removal, should have hogged the limelight. further, in an electronic banking scenario, ad valorem charge to customers is an issue which needs to be relooked. in fact, in a country like ours, part of the cost efficiencies achieved through technology must be passed on to the smaller customers. this calls for a rejig in the way in which banks approach technology. in a technology led financial sector, collaboration among all stakeholders, including competitors, could prove to be the big cost saver. with rapid strides in security standards and capabilities, such a collaboration and sharing of it infrastructure is feasible on a much larger scale than is happening today. it is always perceived by the industry that the handholding / intervening by rbi is necessary for the systems to be operational in an efficient manner. i am unable to understand why collaborative approach cannot be the guiding force for success in adoption of shared it infrastructure. reserve bank has contributed to the fostering of innovative methods to improve access to financial services through mobile and opened up and clarified the issue of business correspondent ( bc ) interoperability. leveraging technology for making financial inclusion possible and a success prior to the enablement of bc interoperability, the banks and technology providers had made a case that it was the lack of interoperability, that was a deterrent for financial inclusion and hence, much headway had not been achieved. according to the technology providers, investment in a non - interoperable technology would be a costly proposition and they did not see