profitability of banks as exploitative given the high cost of credit, and banks should place greater emphasis on longer - term environmental, social, and governance issues. in this regard, cbk has compelled banks to review their business models and has over the last three years impressed on bank shareholders to accept lower return that takes into account the long term needs of their customers and the economy. against this backdrop, in february 2019, cbk issued the kenya banking sector charter to entrench this vision in the banks. the charter represents a commitment from banks to entrench a responsible and disciplined banking sector, cognizant of, and responsive to, the needs of their customers. by end may 2019, all banks had submitted to cbk their time - bound plans approved by their boards, to comply with the charter on the four pillars. cbk is now monitoring implementation of the charter by each bank. more recently, cbk has also secured commitments from the banks that they will act responsibly, particularly on the pricing of credit now that the interest rate caps have been repealed. banks have no choice but to work for and with kenyans. with the clear vision that is operationalized in the banking sector charter, this time it will be different. the writer is the governor of the central bank of kenya

would allow wider access to central bank payment and settlement systems both in time and space. in an extreme case in which cbdc provides the same functionality as banknotes as an alternate measure, it could enable everyone to access central bank accounts 24 / 7, year - round. some overseas central banks have started to consider the rationale for or to conduct researches and analyses on cbdc. also, amid the global trend of fintech, some non - bank companies and their services, such as paypal in the united states and wechatpay in china, have built up a large presence in payment and settlement services, and the structure and composition of payment service providers are now changing rapidly. accordingly, some overseas central banks have started to reconsider to whom they should allow access to their payment and settlement systems. as economic globalization and technological innovation advance, the environment surrounding central bank payment and settlement systems is entering a new phase. iii. initiatives taken by the bank of japan the bank of japan has been continuously improving its infrastructure. we established the bojnet in the 1980s, and then introduced rtgs and liquidity - saving features. in 2015, we started full - scale operation of the new boj - net. although economic globalization and technological innovation are causing dramatic changes in payment and settlement infrastructures, we are confident that the boj - net can keep up with such changes and continue serving as a core infrastructure in the new era. at the same time, regarding how central banks should provide their infrastructures under the changing environment, we need to consider various issues. first, there is the issue of how to strike an appropriate balance between central bank money and private - based money in the economy, and between the stability in settlements and private - led innovation. these are classical issues. nonetheless, as new fintech players have increased their presence in payments and settlements, big - data attached to payment and settlement transactions is becoming more important as a source of added - value in various businesses. we will need to focus not only on the classical issue of “ desirable sharing between central bank money and commercial bank money, ” but also on new payment instruments carrying additional information provided by new players such as “ non - bank fintech firms. ” the emergence of these new payment instruments will make things far more complicated. second, it is crucial for central banks to ensure the security of central bank payment and settlement systems, which are the core infrastructure of the economy. we may also need to consider how to manage the information