the stability of the financial system and the delivery of essential financial services to the economy than any other type of financial institution. as i have already noted, mobile banking is already providing a partial substitute for the retail payments services of banks and could eventually challenge the dominance of banks in the provision of other types of services, including deposits. if so, prudential regulation which is focused on ensuring the soundness of the banking system may no longer be sufficient to protect the safety of customers ’ savings or the systemic stability of the financial system and the preservation of its critical functions. finally i want to stress the vital importance of carrying out high quality research on these issues. this is the only way we will improve our understanding of what is a very complex and rapidly changing phenomenon. i am pleased, therefore, that we will end this conference with a discussion on the directions of a future research agenda. i wish everyone a very productive conference. thank you for listening. bis central bankers ’ speeches

david g opiokello : bank of uganda - recent achievements opening address by mr david g opiokello, deputy governor of the bank of uganda, on the occasion of the senior management workshop for the fy2005 / 2006 work plan and budget preparations, entebbe, 4 march 2005. * * * ladies and gentlemen : i welcome you all to this annual event. i would like to thank all bank staff who have been effectively participating in the implementation of the strategic plan 2003 - 2008. allow me to mention a few achievements. • the issuance of 2, 3, 5 and 10 year government bond was successfully done. • the bank successfully implemented automation of currency note processing. • the rtgs has been launched while that of the foreign exchange application had reached the stage of identifying the winning bidder. • on the capacity building front, the bank trained a number of staff on professional and academic courses, and most staff are now computer literate. • the installation of the internet link was a tremendous success for the bank. it has enormously eased communication both internally and externally and also helped to improve positively the perceptions of staff and external persons on the bou operations. last year around the same time in jinja, we resolved that this event is necessary for overcoming some of the challenges the bou faces in drawing up budgets and work plans. however, in spite of the resolutions we made last year the challenges in implementing and monitoring the current budget and annual work plans have remained onerous. i wish to point out three areas of major concern : 1. absence of the linkage between planning and budgeting best practice requires that annual work plans be closely linked with the budget. last year the budgeting exercise was carried out before agreeing on work plans. this caused a mismatch between planned activities and resources, with the resulting risk of making the whole work planning process irrelevant. part of this problem was caused by functions and departments not submitting their budgets and work plans according to the agreed submission calendar. it is, therefore, not surprising that the budget and work plans were approved late - in september 2004 for the budget and october 2004 for the annual work plans. to overcome this problem this year, we must strictly adhere to the timetable for submission of departmental budget proposals and work plans, which should then fit consistently into the overall budget. it means that functions and departments should give due time to the process so that documents are ready and approved according to schedule. 2. over / under budget