in those perhaps needing choices the most, missing out because of their lack of access to the internet. secondly, the low penetration of credit cards ; a requisite for purchases on the internet has meant that even those who may access the internet are incapable of enjoying the convenience that is otherwise available to them. team transtel has found a solution to the two constraints that i have mentioned. they are leveraging their core competencies, technology and business relationships to present to fiji, and soon, i am informed, the pacific, a prepaid re - loadable stored value card or account for the payment of goods and services. this is yehdo! this prepaid re - loadable card will, i am certain, be readily accepted by this market because it can be used not only from the internet but more importantly from the normal pot ( i. e. plain old telephone for the technical novices ). this will particularly benefit our rural communities where the only means of communication with the rest of fiji is often via the telecom fiji phone system. they can simply call the provider to order their goods and have them delivered. there may be no need to travel all the way to town which is costly and time consuming. the fact that anyone can purchase a starter pack to establish an account from a selected corner shop ; load the account with a prepaid voucher purchased from the same shop in the same way that a prepaid mobile phone is “ topped up ” and purchase goods and services over the telecommunication network presents a new platform for the exchange of goods and services between a buyer and seller. with the introduction of this card, i think that we can say that “ shopping will never be the same again ”. i think that this card is really like a debit card. the major difference though is that instead of having to fill in a long application form and be required to hold some deposits to qualify, anyone can have this card by visiting your corner store and purchasing one. it is as simple as that. i understand that team transtel plan, in this first phase of the yehdo roll out, is to issue cards for calling, internet access and bill payment services. i am informed that other services will be available later. yehdo translates into simple and powerful opportunities that save money and time. perhaps transtel can consider the following : 1. firstly, establish a link, through your network, between our rural producers to supply fruit, vegetables and staple food to our urban customers. 2.

some way below its crisis level of 160 %. it dropped sharply after the crisis and has hovered around its current level for the last few years. but though it is below its pre - crisis level, it is again high by historical standards ; average household debt to income between 1990 and 2006 was 110 %. it also remains high by international standards ; household debt to income is around 85 % in germany, 110 % in the united states and 120 % in spain. putting all of these high - level aggregate indicators together, the level of credit in the economy is beginning to grow again. it is not at pre - crisis levels and indeed looks below averages that include the long build - up of credit in the economy before the crisis. but if you look further back, it is high by historical standards. and it is high by international standards. bis central bankers ’ speeches the high - level picture, of course, can only tell you so much. it is clear that important though they are, these high - level indicators cannot be linked mechanically to the assessment of risk or to action to address it. to build a fuller picture of how credit is affecting the level of risk in the financial system, it is necessary to drill down into the sectoral components of credit and their counterparts in the economy. household credit the largest component of bank credit in the uk economy is of course lending to households and within that the great bulk, around 90 %, is secured on dwellings. mortgage lending is the single largest asset class on lenders ’ balance sheets and stock of lending secured on dwellings is around 70 % of gdp. net secured lending to households is rising at nearly 3 % – the highest rate since the end of 2009. mortgage rates in the uk are now at very low levels – average quoted rates on two - year ( 75 % ltv ) fixed - rate mortgages are below 2 %. some of this of course is because the bank of england ’ s official bank rate has been close to zero since 2009. but over the past three years, as banks ’ funding costs have reduced and as competition in the mortgage market has intensified, on average mortgage interest rates have fallen by 2 percentage points. unsecured lending to households is a much smaller proportion of credit ; it accounts for only 12 % of lending to households and around 10 % of gdp. and the stock of consumer credit remains £30 billion below its peak in 2008. but it is growing at around 8 % a year, much faster than secured lending. again