The initiatives in this area are designed to deliver greater efficiency across the Bank and we have already made good progress in achieving our objectives, which include at least $200 million in cost savings over the next three years. Progress to date:

• In technology, we have a new team in place and we have reorganised our Enterprise IT function into a co-ordinated structure;
  
  
• We have taken the first steps to restructure our relationship with our IT providers with the execution of new Enterprise Processing Systems and telecommunications agreements which will deliver savings and improved service levels; and
  
  
• We have introduced a more focussed approach to group wide procurement – building on the progress we have made over the last three years.

Our goal is to improve our efficiency and achieve cost savings, including the reduction of our ratio of IT costs to overall expenses by a further 25 to 30 per cent. This is on top of the 10 per cent reduction achieved during the 2005 fiscal year.