The correction of this imbalance is particularly pressing in that the reliance on external saving has become a major factor of vulnerability of the Spanish economy during the crisis. The increased dependence on external financing in the pre-crisis period is the consequence of the sizeable accumulation of debt by households and firms, which also led to the Spanish banking system becoming oversized. The need to correct these imbalances poses an added difficulty to recovery in the economy, given that it restricts the headroom available to raise investment and consumption through resort to external financing. It is also crucial to continue with the restructuring of the banking system. Hence, when solvent demand recovers, it may be serviced by a normal flow of financing which, both in Spain and in the rest of continental Europe, is routed essentially through credit institutions. But households and firms still have a relatively lengthy process of debt reduction ahead of them. Accordingly, in the short term, the recovery in growth cannot be credit-led as in the past. Along these lines, credit to the non-financial private sector in 2011 fell by around 4%, although there were significant differences from sector to sector. In the case of households the pace of debt reduction was somewhat slower, whereas in that of firms the reduction in credit was more marked in those sectors, such as construction and real estate development, that had become oversized to a greater extent before the crisis.
However, where the service provider is not the regulator, it is hard to coordinate and preserve the character of accessibility. The UK regulators have taken bold steps to outsource the service provider’s role and concentrate on the regulatory role, while USA, Sri Lanka and India are still trying to strike a balance between the dual roles, which we have inherited for decades. 2. Retail payments outlook and prospects  2.1 Retail banking is still the main force in banking, and is likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future, despite the relentless growth of investment banking, corporate banking and other forms of services. In 2006, retail banking business accounted for euro 1,220 bn in revenue, or about 57% of the global banking revenue pool of euro 2,150 bn. The world over, banks continue to open branches and attempt to make their branches more attractive for retail payments. Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and many of the SAARC countries are members of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), Asia-Pacific Trade Agreements (APTA), The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and several other trade agreements. During 2002-2006, exports in the SAARC region as a ratio of world exports rose from 1.09 to 1.29 percent, of which India accounted for more than 75 percent. Although firm numbers are not available for 2007, exports are estimated to have increased at a significant rate followed by higher cross-border payments.