not necessarily be part of rbf ’ s core mandates. the question of whether such a role should be played by the rbf or someone else is not something that we should debate about. i am of the view that in a small and open island economy like ours, the central bank can play a more influential development role aside from its traditional monetary policy role to influence prices and ensuring we have adequate reserves to pay for our foreign bills. the challenge is in finding the right balance in our interventions that will complement the efforts of others, including government. more often than not, the reserve bank prefers to play a facilitating and supporting role while encouraging other stakeholders, such as the banks, to come to the party. however there have been times where a leadership role has been required, at least to start the ball rolling. 1. microfinance and greater financial inclusion more recently the reserve bank has taken on an active role in formulating policies and strategies aimed at increasing outreach of financial services to the unbanked or the underserved population. a new department, titled the financial system development and compliance ( fsdc ) group, was set up in the bank in april 2009 to drive these initiatives. i am pleased to announce that through this new group, the reserve bank has been able to make good progress in areas of microfinance and financial inclusion. national microfinance workshop in november 2009, the reserve bank, in collaboration with the pacific financial inclusion programme ( pfip ), successfully organised a national microfinance and financial inclusion workshop. our objective was to harness the strengths and efforts of all the players in the industry towards building a sustainable way forward for microfinance in general and financial inclusion in particular. the workshop provided a consultative forum for stakeholders to review and develop a medium term strategy on the way forward for greater financial inclusion in fiji. at the end of the workshop, the strategic focus arrived at a common vision of “ … reaching at least 150, 000 unbanked citizens through a coordinated national effort by the year 2014. ” the reserve bank was assigned a lead driving role by all those present, which we readily agreed to take up. we did not want another workshop where lots of brilliant ideas are raised, but quickly fade once everyone went back to the comfort of their respective offices, as so often happens in fiji. in fact all the stakeholders were excited to move things forward. i. nfit the first major outcome of the workshop was the set up of a national financial inclusion

barry whiteside : providing fijians with innovative banking services opening address by mr barry whiteside, governor of the reserve bank of fiji, at the opening of bred bank ( fiji ) limited ’ s nausori branch, nausori, 19 october 2013. * * * director bred bank paris, mr sebastien nahon the chief executive officer, mr satish deb management and staff of bred bank ( fiji ) limited distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen introductory comments good morning, bonjour and bula vinaka to you all. i wish to thank satish for the kind invitation to officiate at the opening bred bank ’ s newest branch, right here in nausori. almost a year ago, i had the pleasure of also officiating at the opening of bred bank ’ s first branch at mhcc, followed just recently by its first kiosk bank in the tappoo city building in suva. you may recall at the mhcc occasion that i had mentioned bred bank had a vision to invest in fiji due to the countries relatively developed market size and appealing future economic prospects. today marks another milestone of this vision being brought to reality. being the only locally incorporated bank in fiji, bred bank boasts strong support from its parent company, compagnie financiere de la bred ( cofibred ), a wholly owned subsidiary of bred banque populaire and the largest regional co - operative bank of the banque populaire group of france. only 11 months old in our banking system, bred bank is showing real signs of progression, currently employing around 68 staff with 100 percent local management. i am told that the institution now has eight atms around the greater suva area with new eftpos machines also currently being tested before deployment. bred bank ’ s nausori branch bred bank has always indicated that it would provide the people of fiji with innovative banking services. the opening of this new branch in nausori is a clear testament of this commitment, synonymous with its catchy slogan “ it ’ s all about you! ” i would like to emphasise that initiatives such as this today also dovetail with our national financial inclusion taskforce goal to reach 150, 000 unbanked fijians by the end of 2014. bred bank ’ s presence in nausori will bring about further competition in the financial services sector in this area. customer choice and banking services will certainly widen. employing around seven staff, this new branch will