number has now risen to 5. 5 million. but perhaps what is more important than the increase in the number of branches or bank accounts is the fact that many of the new entrants into the banking market, all owned by the private sector and predominantly from other african countries, are bringing unique attributes to banking in uganda. in particular, they are able to draw upon expertise in serving the specific needs of businesses and households which has been gained in the markets of their parent banks, particularly with regard to new products or innovative ways of delivering services to customers. for example, imperial bank offers banking products such as structured warehouse financing, supply chain financing and asset financing to a wide range of its clients in the small and medium size enterprise and mid - corporate segments of the business sector. bis central bankers ’ speeches competition within the banking market takes many different forms. if new banks are to expand their market share, they must be able to carve out a viable niche in the market and offer their customers financial products and services which cannot be obtained from their competitors. new entrants must grow in order to survive in the banking market, because there are important economies of scale to be realised in banking. with the implementation of the common market in the east african community, competition will intensify and efficiency and quality of service will be paramount for success in the market place. to survive, banks will have to find ways of reducing their costs and passing these reductions onto their customers and seek to develop innovative quality products for the market. with these remarks, i once again thank the shareholders, the board of directors and management of imperial bank for demonstrating their commitment to serve the people of uganda through the expansion of the branch network. this will also contribute to advancing the bank of uganda ’ s financial inclusion agenda, which involves spreading access to formal financial services to those sections of the population which currently lack access. it is now my honor and great pleasure to declare the imperial bank ’ s acacia mall kampala branch officially inaugurated. thank you for listening. bis central bankers ’ speeches

from other savings accounts to their pensions, page 4 of 6 while keeping the total amount of savings unchanged. this experience points to a potential decline in pension contributions due to the low interest rates. however, the prospects of a long period with very low interest rates, the so - called " new normal ", create an unprecedented situation. so pension savers may choose to increase pension contributions to compensate for the lost yield. time will tell. ( graph 8 – banks'earnings remain high ). the low level of interest rates may also challenge banks'ability to make profits. i acknowledge that banks are in some ways challenged by the present interest rate environment. fortunately, danish banks have been able to generate profits from other sources of income. while net interest income has dwindled, banks have increased income from both fees and administration margins on mortgages. moreover, a favourable macroeconomic setting is underpinned by the interest rate policies of central banks as well as asset purchase programmes. the macroeconomic setting has contributed to a very low level of loan impairment charges in danish banks. in fact, danish banks have experienced a period of record profits in recent years. however, impairment charges cannot continue at the currently low levels. if we look ahead, earnings should be expected to decrease again. ( graph 9 – recession risks ). even though unconventional measures remain as part of the monetary policy toolbox, there is no doubt less leeway than previously for monetary policy to support the economy in case of a downturn. this is an important insight in a situation of heightened risk of a global recession. with almost 10 years of uninterrupted growth, the us economy is experiencing a record - long economic expansion. history shows that such an extended period of optimism tends to cause " speed blindness ", sowing the seeds of a downturn. it may be difficult to predict when the us economy will be hit by a downturn or recession, but historically, an inverted yield curve has signalled an upcoming recession. and at the moment, we are facing a situation where yields on 3 - month us treasuries exceed yields on 10 - year government bonds. however, the yield curve is affected by a number of factors besides expectations of a cyclical turning point. these include the federal reserve's asset purchase programme. this may reduce the predictive power of an inverted yield curve. page 5 of 6 surveys also indicate that the perceived recession risk in financial markets has risen in the last couple of years. the