He has not shown signs of injury as he walked around practice

It seems like a wise decision by Harris to get ready and miss a few games before theofficial tip-off of the regular season. The projected return to practice for Harris might be as early as this weekend. He has not shown signs of injury as he walked around practice.One thing that is official is that Harris will play against the Knicks next Wednesday, and all eyes hill be on him.. Activity in the mobile financial services space around the world has ramped up anotch as more companies seek to bring to reality the vision of widespread usageof mobile devices to pay for goods and services.

For various reasons, however,implementing this vision has been held back in practice: consumers arecomfortable with existing payment options; the technology is not yet optimal;the end-user experience is cumbersome; and business models are still largely influx. Mobile payments are having a more penetrating impact in poorer economies than inmature ones, with market dynamics that are starkly different, especially inAfrica. This is understandably due to a more constraining supply environment -one that is primarily cash-based, rife with antiquated regulations and burdenedwith a banking system that is geared to focus on the high end of the consumermarket. The greater impact of mobile payments in emerging markets is also due tothe more challenging demand picture of markets where most consumers have muchlower incomes and lack bank accounts.

It is in this context that new business models have emerged over the past fewyears that are transforming the financial landscape in developing countries. Anew report Mobile Financial Services in Africa: The Business Case for Operatorsand Banks, reviews and analyzes mobile financial services offerings in Africanmarkets, looks at drivers and obstacles to mobile financial services, breaksdown business models to assess their true bottom-line impact, and providesmarket projections based on intrinsic market dynamics. Target audience: Operators Banks Investors Mobile financial platform vendors and integratorsCompanies Mentioned: ABSA Celpay Celtel International CGAP Citibank Clickatell Danal E-Fulusi Africa eTranzact First National Bank of South Africa FirstRand FlashMeCash FNB FNB Banking Fundamo Globacom InterSwitch Nigeria K-Rep Bank Macalla MasterCard Mi-Pay' MoneyGram MoneyTextMe M-PESA MTN MTN Banking Obopay Safaricom SK Telekom Sokotele (Zain) South African Bank of Athens Standard Bank of South Africa UBA Visa Vodacom Vodafone Western Union wiWallet Wizzit Zain Zantel Z-PESAFor more information visit http:// WoodSenior Fax from USA: 646-607-1907Fax from rest of the world: 353-1-481-1716 Copyright Business Wire 2009. A high-level committee chaired by former Bank of FranceGovernor Jacques de Larosiere is due to make recommendations onstreamlining EU financial supervision on Feb 25 which thebloc's leaders will discuss in March. "You need something more European that would look at themacro prudential picture and have a close link which isdifficult to do with the micro supervisor," said Peter Praet,director of the National Bank of Belgium "This is a priority on the agenda There is a big gap inthis macro prudential supervision. A quick response must begiven, and I hope de Larosiere will go in that direction," Praettold a seminar. Several members of the European Central Bank, including itspresident, Jean-Claude Trichet, say the ECB is ready to play arole in a more centralised system of bank supervision in Europe.

Praet said the financial system was "still not yet undercontrol", and Europe had not been able to speak with once voicein international efforts to reform regulation. "Europe has been very much divided and unable to influencethe outlook in the way we would wish," Praet said. "We need not only a European response but a coherentresponse," Praet added. A top official from the European Commission, which as theonly institution with power to propose pan-EU financialregulation is at the heart of the bloc's response to the crisis,said banks still needed to properly disclose exposure to toxicassets. "It's absolutely vital we get the size of potential lossesout in the open as fast as possible in order to deal with theproblem," said David Wright, deputy head of the Commission'sinternal market unit. "How can you deal with the problem if you don't know whereit is. Even today we are today struggling to define the size ofthe problem," Wright told a financial market conference.