smartphone, which can benefit consumers both in cities and in remote areas. moreover, the ever - expanding universe of new financial services means there are a number of choices and solutions available to fulfill different needs, especially those currently underserved. ladies and gentlemen, as financial technology can help unlock massive potential of our people, it is now up to us, the leaders and policymakers, to play an important role of “ the catalysts, ” to pave way for greater adoption of financial technology. on this point, i believe there are at least four key areas that catalysts like us must act together : 3 / 5 first, we must encourage common standards of technologies or platforms to avoid market fragmentation. having common standards would improve competition and innovation, as they allow easy access for all players, especially small innovative players. a good example of the common standards is the standardized qr code for electronic payment here in thailand, where banks and non - banks can apply the common standard to their applications. the result of which was the remarkable speed of adoption of qr code for payment ; in less than one year since its launch, qr code payment is accepted by over 2 million merchants all over thailand. more importantly, financial institutions within the region have already taken advantage of the interoperability of the qr code by applying the common standard in their applications for cross - border transactions with their partners. we are certain there will be many similar partnerships in the future. second, we must establish basic and open digital financial infrastructure so that further innovation can emerge to serve a wider range of consumers. open infrastructure enables service providers to build value - added services on top at low cost. for instance, e - payment services were created based on our promptpay infrastructure, such as bill payment and request - to - pay features. these, in turn, have helped facilitate e - payments for merchants and consumers and improved the overall e - commerce business landscape. even charitable organizations are able to take advantage of the open - platform with e - donation. meanwhile, the adoption of electronic payment through a common infrastructure can further create the data essential for information - based lending or for banks to improve on their risk models. third, we must facilitate greater convergence of rules and regulations within our region to make sure that existing regulations do not impede advancement of financial connectivity. efforts are being made in this area. asean central banks are working on initiatives under the asean banking integration framework to make banking regulations more cohesive, aiming at achieving greater consistency

investment activity is subdued. the central bank's judgement remains that the domestic banking system is resilient to this downturn. in residential housing, an ongoing deficit in supply continues to drive prices domestically, and around 52, 000 new homes per annum could be needed to meet demand. despite these imbalances, there are no signs of excessive risk taking in mortgage credit, while aggregate mortgage credit growth remains moderate. more broadly, the irish economy is growing strongly and modified domestic demand is expected to grow in 2024 and 2025 at a faster pace than at the time of the last review. however as international investment and multinational enterprises ( mnes ) are central 1 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches to the domestic economic model, driving a significant share of growth, public finances and employment, ireland is particularly exposed to global developments at a time of increased geopolitical and geoeconomic risk. moreover, with an economy performing at or above capacity, expansionary fiscal policy risks aggravating domestic pressures. irish households and businesses have been supported by a growing economy, but are also exposed to global shocks. households have weathered the period of higher interest rates, with the amount of income spent on debt repayments remaining stable. this follows a substantial decline in interest expenses in the decade after the global financial crisis ( gfc ). however, a shock to international trade could have knock - on effects for the labour market here, as well as the performance of domestic firms. irish small and medium - sized enterprises ( smes ) have shown resilience, but there are pockets of risk, for example with insolvencies rising in the accommodation / food and other services sectors although we have continued to observe employment growth in these sectors. domestic bank profitability has likely reached its cyclical peak, following strong growth over the last couple of years. however the banking sector is resilient and is well - placed to withstand any softening in profits. against this backdrop, we are maintaining an unchanged policy stance for macroprudential capital buffers. the counter - cyclical capital buffer ( ccyb ) rate remains at 1. 5 per cent. the central bank's mortgage measures aim to ensure sustainable lending standards and evidence suggests the measures continue to meet their objectives. recent developments in new mortgage lending show a shift towards lti and ltv limits, but the share of new lending in the most risky categories is contained. borrowing levels relative to incomes continue to be materially lower than in the early