From our engagement sessions, it was not uncommon for us to hear about stories of anger, resentment and frustration from the migrant workers about the difficulties they had to go through in remitting money to their families. The workers whom we approached in Sapong estate for example, told us that they only had two options to access the remittance service: the closest is in the town of Tenom which is located 8 kilometers away from their estate; or if that is not available, the next option is to go to Keningau which is about 50 kilometers away! We also knew of instances where the workers were robbed on their way to remit money. Some told us that the money that they sent through hawaladars did not reach their families. These aptly sum up why it is crucial for us to promote a remittance service that is safe, affordable and convenient. This is also the primary reason why we decided that Project Greenback 2.0 Kota Kinabalu should be focusing on accelerating usage of digital remittance services.
During the post-meeting press conference, Chairman Bernanke stated “While participants continue to think that, in the long run, the Federal Reserve’s portfolio should consist predominantly of Treasury securities, a strong majority now expects that the Committee will not sell agency mortgage-backed securities during the process of normalizing monetary policy, although in the longer run, limited sales could be used to reduce or eliminate residual MBS holdings.” Surveys conducted after this meeting revealed no expectation for agency MBS sales, and for the portfolio to be larger over time as a result. 21 “What explained markets’ strong reaction – and why did it surprise us? In retrospect, I think our view of market  expectations was too dependent on our survey of securities dealers. Futures markets gave us a reliable read of where markets thought the federal funds rate was going – but not for our securities purchases. For that, economists at the New York Fed asked their counterparts at the securities firms, who paid careful attention to every nuance of Fed policymakers’ public statements. In effect, our Ph.D. economists surveyed their Ph.D. economists. It was a little like looking in a mirror. It didn’t tell us what the rank-and-file traders were thinking. Many traders, apparently, didn’t pay much attention to their economists…” 22 These figures include results from the Desk’s September Surveys of Primary Dealers and Market Participants. The results from these surveys will be released tomorrow on the New York Fed’s website.