Take the naval reference and the gender bias out, and you have the ultimate guide for all of you who depart Bryant today aspiring to lead: You must be more than smart and have more than a mighty intellect; you must develop the whole woman, the whole man to be a leader in whatever field you chose. A smattering of Latin Which brings me to the last requirement for most all commencement orations – a smattering of Latin. Commencement speakers at great schools seem to delight in showing off their command of an ancient tongue. Many a commencement speaker might have concluded this afternoon’s remarks with labor omnia vincit – a stern reminder that labor conquers all things. It is true, indeed, that you can’t rest on your laurels or your good family name or a Bryant education or just plain good luck. You have to work hard and sweat to succeed. And in doing so, you have to remember mens sana in corpore sano – a sound mind resides best in a sound body. But that is way too ponderous. This is, after all, a festive day!
One example where the banks did not co-operate in the payment market is the service of digital invoicing systems. Up to spring 2002 the banks were offering two different, non-compatible systems, “e-giro” and “e-faktura”. The existence of two digital invoicing systems was an obstacle with regard to getting both companies and households to utilise the new technology. Today the banks are investing in making the systems compatible with one another and the goal is that invoicers and invoicees will be able to reach one another regardless of which bank they use. If this succeeds, it should lead to increased acceptance from customers and enable critical mass to be achieved more easily. Will cash disappear? The use of cash in Sweden has halved since the mid-1950s, which is of course a result of the technological developments with card payments and later Internet payments offering good substitutes for payment with banknotes. However, the decline in the use of cash has slowed down in recent years and the M0 money supply is currently around SEK 90 billion, or 4 per cent of GDP. Cash is suitable for certain types of transaction, including, unfortunately, those that people don’t want registered, and there is perhaps a lower limit for the demand for banknotes. In addition, the alternative cost for cash has been low in recent years, as a result of low inflation and low interest rates. However, the use of cash in Sweden is higher than in other Nordic countries.