Competition is a part of Hong Kong’s free market ethos. It is already strong in the banking sector here. We have witnessed it in particular – and occasionally with some concern – in the mortgage war and in the provision of credit card and other consumer services. Competition is being sharpened and stimulated by globalisation, which opens up hitherto restricted markets to businesses that are able to export their strengths, and by technological advance, which puts a premium on innovation and ingenuity. BIS Review 55/2001  1  For the economy as a whole, competition promotes efficiency in the allocation of resources and strength and flexibility in the face of change or crisis. In the banking sector, greater competition strengthens both individual banks, by forcing them to focus on their own core competence, and the banking system as a whole, by weeding out inefficiencies. For the consumer, competition promotes choice, quality and efficiency in products and services, and more reasonable costs. But competition, by its very nature, produces winners and losers. It also complicates the relationship between banks and customers, as services and fee structures become more complex and more sophisticated products proliferate. The general government policy on competition in Hong Kong is to adopt a sector-specific approach. We are not disposed to the idea of a general, overarching competition authority, since each sector of the economy has its own special needs and concerns.
I would now like to turn briefly to the experience of the Central Bank of Malta in dealing with these policy issues over almost 50 years of its existence. Malta is an extremely small, open economy, highly dependent on international trade for its prosperity. The Bank’s monetary policy objective was initially set as the promotion of “the orderly and balanced development of Malta and a rising level of employment and income consistent with the maintenance of monetary stability in Malta and the external value of the currency”. In practice, among these multiple objectives, the Bank gave priority to maintaining stability in the external value of the Maltese lira (or pound as it was initially known). An exchange rate peg was seen as necessary to support foreign trade and inward investment from abroad. Moreover, given Malta’s  2  For an account of the euro area’s exchange rate policy during the first decade of its existence, see Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, “The euro area’s exchange rate policy and the experience with international monetary coordination during the crisis”. Speech delivered on 6 April 2009 in Brussels. 2  dependence on imported goods to satisfy domestic consumer demand, the peg was also seen as a prerequisite to safeguard domestic purchasing power. 3  Throughout its existence, therefore, the  Bank’s monetary policy orientation was always focused on a fixed exchange rate as the nominal policy anchor.