club / school youth championships held in rodrigues. a record number of national records – 14 of them – were established this year. bis central bankers ’ speeches we were proud to note that two athletes who first came to national attention at the inter - club youth championships won bronze medals in the “ indian ocean island games 2011 ” held in seychelles. the bank rewarded the record - setters as well as the two bronze medallists at a prize - giving ceremony held at the bank in december 2011, in the presence of their parents / families, trainers, and national sport officials. financial literacy programme the bank continues to play its role in the promotion of financial literacy. this year, the bank launched a financial literacy – essay competition on the theme ‘ the importance of saving for youngsters ’, which was open to students of forms iv and v. we also organised the fifth edition of the “ monetary policy challenge ” in june 2011. at the prize - giving ceremony held at the bank in december 2011, the winners of both competitions were rewarded, in the presence of parents, teachers and college rectors of the winners. ( more on this issue ) internship programme as part of our outreach initiatives, we planned an internship programme but it took us some time to deliver on it. we first had to address very real concerns about data confidentiality and secrecy before we tentatively introduced an internship programme, limited to students of the university of mauritius and the university of technology. five interns were selected after an interview and posted in different divisions of the bank to acquire practical experience in central banking. the internship programme covered the period july to september 2011. in 2012, we intend to broaden the programme to accommodate interns from anywhere throughout the year. training we continued to provide up - to - date training to staff to better equip them for the challenges ahead. imf technical assistance in the areas of macroeconomic modelling and supervision was on - going. training in these areas is expected to enhance skills and the analytical capacity of bank staff. capital of the bank with the approval of the minister of finance, we doubled the bank ’ s capital from rs1 billion to rs2 billion in november 2011. this injection of capital was rendered necessary on account of the significant increase in the volume of the bank of mauritius instruments which we had to issue to cope with excess liquidity to maintain orderly conditions in the banking and financial sector. issue of new notes in october 2011, we issued banknotes of rs200, rs500 and rs1,

##mise the risks now being implicitly underwritten by the monetary and fiscal authorities. single financial regulator the twin - peaks regulation model has been listed among the possible suspects responsible for the financial and banking crisis in some jurisdictions. an important policy development was the announcement in the november 2010 budget speech of the possible move to a single regulator for all financial services in our jurisdiction. this will most certainly impact on the way the bank currently functions. a team of experts of international repute has been identified to undertake a study on the way forward. mauritius credit information bureau since its launch in 2005, the mauritius credit information bureau ( mcib ) has rapidly emerged as an essential decision - making tool for system participants to assess any prospective borrower ’ s credit profile. the credit information system also provides reputational collateral to borrowers such as smes and small borrowers who often face difficulties in accessing finance due to lack of tangible collateral. an important amendment was brought to the bank of mauritius act in uly 2011 empowering the bank to impose sanctions on credit providers who refuse to join the mcib. another amendment enabled the bank to become a participant of the system which the bank formally joined in january 2012. lenders are encouraged to share the benefits derived from the mcib with borrowers by reducing processing fees, charges and lending rates. ( more on this issue ) cheque truncation system in my last letter, i had regretted my inability to deliver on the cheque truncation system ( cts ) which had got entangled in procedural difficulties. this year, we took bold steps to steer this long - delayed project in the right direction. amidst unfounded criticisms and baseless allegations of fraud and malpractice, the new system was set up in collaboration with commercial banks. on 6 september 2011, dr the honourable navinchandra ramgoolam, gcsk, frcp, prime minister, minister of defence, home affairs and external communications, came to the bank to launch the cts in the presence, amongst others, of the honourable cg xavier - luc duval gcsk, vice prime minister and minister of finance and economic development, and the ceo ’ s of all banks operating in mauritius. we chose to mark the occasion by donating a cheque of rs1 million to the prime minister ’ s relief fund, with this bank of mauritius cheque being the first to be cleared by the cts. the deployment of this new system which provides for the bulk clearing system