the law to enhance the independence of the mpc. 11. it was also a decisive stride towards improving governance at the bank. i wanted more transparency and accountability at the level of the mpc and instigated a major review after it had been in operation for four years. the review resulted in two major changes, firstly in the composition of the mpc and, secondly, in the publication of the minutes of the meeting, including the voting patterns of individual members. 12. the establishment of the mpc with its enhanced transparency and accountability made monetary policy gain increasing credibility in the eyes of the public. we complemented our action by developing clear lines of communication with economic agents and adopted an open - door policy to respond to the concerns of the various economic stakeholders including real sector operators, academia, opinion leaders, and consumer associations. i held regular bis central bankers ’ speeches public consultations through press conferences and public addresses. today, inflation expectations are well - anchored and it has become much easier to interpret and understand monetary policy decisions. the bank has been successful in disinflating the economy and has brought down the inflation rate to less than 4 per cent in 2012 from 10. 9 per cent in april 2007. 13. exchange rate policy many of you will recall that the value of the rupee was in free fall in the years preceding my nomination as governor of the bank of mauritius in 2007, paving the way for a one - way bet against the currency and fuelling unsustainable over - borrowing in rupees. it was clear to me that this would plague the economy with speculative transactions and constrain our move to the next stage of development. exchange rate stability was the necessary condition that we had to satisfy if we were to stand any chance to succeed in realising the vision of our political leadership to build mauritius into a vibrant international financial centre of repute. 14. my stance was to favour a stable currency, given our euro - biased exports and dollar - biased imports and the high exchange - rate volatility witnessed in the international forex market during the global financial crisis. a stable currency would remove foreign exchange risk, thus providing some element of certainty in doing business for both importers and exporters. to pursue this stable exchange rate policy, the bank continued with its methods of adjustment and fine - tuning but never shied away from doing what we assessed was right under the varying circumstances faced by the economy. more recently, the bank has attuned its policy to mit

r basant roi : regulatory and supervisory infrastructure in mauritius address by mr r basant roi, governor of the bank of mauritius, at the annual meeting of the offshore group of banking supervisors, pointe aux piments, 22 july 2003. * * * honourable minister of economic development, financial services and corporate affairs mr colin powell, chairman of offshore group of banking supervisors distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen good morning i am delighted to welcome you to the annual meeting of the offshore group of banking supervisors in mauritius. it is my privilege to welcome mr colin powell who has been the chairman of the ogbs since 1981. i am pleased to note that a seminar on the new capital accord and corporate governance was held yesterday with the collaboration of the financial stability institute. mauritius is a member of the offshore group of banking supervisors as from the time offshore banking activities started here. i wish to stress right at the outset that the bank of mauritius has been pursuing a selective licensing policy with a view to bringing into our jurisdiction players of international repute. the maintenance of a clean international image has always been an overriding consideration. of late there has been mounting demand for tighter surveillance of offshore centres to guard against money laundering and international financial instability. more than ever it is necessary to enhance supervisory co - operation between banking supervisors in offshore financial centres through the implementation of international standards for cross - border banking supervision. the globalisation of financial services companies, coupled with the development in information technology have greatly facilitated movements of funds from one jurisdiction to another. often funds are moved by a ‘ simple click of the mouse. ’ it is imperative for all jurisdictions to observe acceptable standards of banking supervision. the efforts made in one jurisdiction to combat money laundering can be nullified by the deficiencies and lax regulations existing in other jurisdictions. we fully appreciate the role of the financial action task force ( fatf ) that carried out evaluations of anti - money laundering regimes in different countries. naming and shaming non - cooperative countries does seem to produce the desired results. i wish to express my appreciation of the customer due diligence ( cdd ) document - a joint product of the basel committee on banking supervision and the offshore group of banking supervisors. while the document recognises the cross - border implications of financial transactions, it also favours exchange of information pertaining to customer adoption policies and procedures of financial institutions. the essence of the customer due diligence paper has been included in the revised version of the guidance notes on aml / cft. the bank of