The proportion of households with debt-service ratios between 30% and 40% is now much smaller than it was in 2008. 6  BIS central bankers’ speeches  of their capital, funding and liquidity positions. But risky UK mortgage assets, along with UK commercial property, certainly damaged a number of UK institutions. One risk from an increase in household balance sheets due to house purchases being financed by ever increasing amounts of debt is that homeowners can’t repay the mortgage in times of stress. We saw this in the UK in the 1990s. But the main damage in the last crisis from high levels of UK households’ secured debt however did not come so much through bank losses or through the huge falls in house prices seen in other countries. Cushioned by the cuts in interest rates to effectively zero, QE, and stronger-than-expected employment levels12, UK households were largely able to maintain servicing their debt even though their real income was declining. Indeed they paid debt down to reduce the size of their balance sheets. But to do so, they cut back their consumption markedly, thus deepening and prolonging the recession. Real household consumption fell by 6% between end 2007 and 2009. This is an important if less well known risk from large household balance sheets. Even if they pay their mortgages households cut back consumption when house prices fall and uncertainty about future income increases.
Following the efforts made by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, cheques/bank drafts are now being cleared on t+1 or t+2 in most parts of the country, and that has clearly enhanced access to finance through retail transactions. The receipt of remittances through non-bank sources or various money transfer systems has also been enhanced following  BIS Review 40/2008  5  countrywide IT and payment system advancements. In more recent years, therefore, financial exclusion in Sri Lanka has been greatly reduced. Initiatives for financial inclusion of women There are some initiatives taken, not only by Sri Lanka, but also in the South Asian region towards financial inclusion. By 2005, micro finance institutions covered at least 35mn of some 270mn people in the South Asian region and met around 15% of the overall credit requirements of low-income families. In Sri Lanka, the coverage is particularly high at 60%. The high outreach in Sri Lanka is based on an extensive network of community-based organizations that receive considerable government subsidies. Almost all rural financial institutions in Sri Lanka have provided easy access to women, particularly in the villages, estates and among fishing communities. Financial institutions that are directly involved in this area, are the licensed commercial banks, licensed specialized banks, micro finance institutions, cooperative rural banks, the SANASA Thrift and Credit Cooperative Movement, SEEDS and other non-governmental organizations.