Such is our aim in Hong Kong. But this does not mean throwing money into each and every idea which comes along - there’s no point in constructing highways if no-one wants to drive down them. There must be a reasonable business case. On the other hand, no venture no gain. The opening up of a footpath may lead to the emergence of heavy traffic. Thus we have been selective in the initiatives which we support and, although not every project may have been an unqualified success, examples such as our HKD RTGS system which we pioneered in the mid-90s; the CMU which provides such an excellent settlement and custody service for debt securities and which is being linked up with a growing number of overseas counterparties; and the relatively recent USD clearing system; all of these present a strong track record. We are here today to mark another milestone in this infrastructural development - in the field of clearing and payments. Our USD clearing system, introduced in 2000, has demonstrated that a niche exists for services of this type in this part of the world. USD RTGS turnover has grown to about 3,000 transactions a day with a value of some $ billion; and over 1,000 USD cheques are being processed daily. Enquiries and discussions with banks suggested to us that there was also a business case for a roughly parallel service in euro.
Bloomberg, Chicago Board Options Exchange, Debt Management Office, London Stock Exchange, Merrill Lynch, Thomson Datastream and Bank calculations  Chart 3: Bank lending to households and nonfinancial companies in the UK  Chart 4: Major UK banks’ leverage ratio  Percentage of GDP 100 90 80 Households  70 60 50 40 30 20 10  Non-financial companies  0 70  74  78  82  86  90  94  98  02  06  Sources: Bank of England, Thomson Datastream and Bank calculations. 6  Sources: Published accounts and Bank calculations  BIS Review 132/2008  Chart 5: Major UK banks’ customer funding gap, household saving ratio and foreign interbank deposits  Chart 6: Major UK banks’ and LCFIs’ credit default swap premia  Major UK banks US commercial banks  (c)  US securities houses European LCFIs  Jul. Sep. Nov. Jan. Mar. May. Jul. 2007  Basis points 700 650 600 550 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Sep.  08  Sources: Bank of England, Dealogic, ONS, published accounts and Bank calculations. Sources: Markit Group Limited , Thomson Datastream, published accounts and Bank calculations.