mr president i think all of us will welcome the fact that some kind of normalisation is beginning to return to financial markets
however this is not a one-strand crisis unfortunately and there are other areas that need to be looked at
one of those is the whole area of credit cards
current credit behaviour has proven to be unsustainable both on an individual and on a broader level
tv programmes newspapers and magazines over the last years have highlighted the perils of multiple credit card ownership by people who have trouble paying off even one of these cards
obviously it is up to the individual to act responsibly in this regard but it is also up to financial institutions and increasingly retailers to act responsibly in offering advertising and granting these cards
it is up to us as public representatives to ensure our citizens are adequately informed
we can stabilise our markets try to inject liquidity into markets but if we do not address the issue of responsible credit activity not just at national and international level but at all the levels of the economic system eventual recovery is likely to be limited and unsustainable
to put this into context the securitised market for credit cards is about as large as the sub-prime mortgage market
