Some, perhaps even the lion’s share, of the retreat in securitization, money market mutual fund shares, and repos is probably due to investors’ memory of the financial crisis. Institutions and individuals burned by runs and losses from fire sale conditions have, at least for the time being, adopted a more prudent stance. But structural changes have also played a role.
Lack of transparency in pricing of financial services and products; and unreliable market infrastructure mainly due to downtime for ATMs, Point of Sale (POS) devices and Mobile money and electronic funds transfer ecosystems remain problematic, although we are attempting to address these systematically. These are issues we will ponder on in the coming days, weeks and months.