Significantly, the largest financial institutions are among those affected by credit concerns. The slowdown in the demand for financing has been aggravated by a deterioration in the quality of portfolios on the assets side and the consequent tightening of lending norms. All this has rendered the short-term outlook uncertain. The silver lining in the otherwise sombre global macroeconomic and financial situation has been Asia.
In the rest of these remarks I will highlight what I think are some of the key issues which we need to study and debate if we are to better understand the changes which mobile money will bring about and their implications.