Joseph Yam: Complaints against banks and the role of the HKMA Speech by Mr Joseph Yam, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the Hong Kong Association of Banks Half-Yearly Dinner, Hong Kong, 24 June 2002. *  *  *  I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak to you at this half-yearly dinner, and I am grateful to the organisers for choosing an evening that does not happen to coincide with the quarter-finals, semifinals or final of the World Cup. This has, I am sure you will agree, been an exciting tournament so far. One of its striking features has been the record number of yellow and red cards issued to players by referees for fouls, unsporting behaviour and other forms of misconduct. The reasons put forward include worsening behaviour on the playing field, stricter application of the rules by referees, and a greater tendency among players to complain about real or imagined grievances. Whether all this is good or bad for the game is a matter of debate: it certainly makes for interesting television. But it is not just in the world of football that we see a rise in grievances and complaints. It is a phenomenon affecting many areas of life in Hong Kong, including the relationship between consumers and their banks. Complaints against banks are on the increase.
Although we always stress the importance of improving productivity in agriculture and industry sectors, a similar significance should be assigned to the services sector as well. Despite the growing weight in services in economies, productivity growth in services has been slow in many countries and the share of the working-age population employed in services remains low in many countries. If we wish to strengthen economic growth and improve the foundations for the future performance of our economy, the services sector will need to do better. But strengthening growth performance is not the only challenge that we are facing. We are also confronted with the growing globalization of services and with rapid technological change posing the huge challenge of keeping the momentum in the services sector. Addressing such challenges and strengthening the potential of services to foster employment would be definitely through increased productivity and innovation. Certainly a productive services sector would deliver more benefits in a highly competitive environment. Sri Lanka’s telecommunication sector is a good example. In which areas have we been below par? Although Sri Lanka has a huge potential in services such as education, health and tourism, we haven’t done enough. So, also, has it been in the case of ports, financial services, including banking. We have not been able to reduce prices and charges through increased productivity. We may need to open domestic services markets to create new job opportunities and foster innovation and productivity.