The condition of the banks which perform the financial intermediation function is of key importance for the whole economy. This accounts for the Bulgarian National Bank’s enormous responsibility for the fulfilment of the mandate entrusted to us by law and specifically for maintaining the stability of the banking system. This requires that we stay traditionally focused on the high capital and liquidity requirements for banks. These requirements are not ends in themselves, but follow from the need for banks to have reserves at hand. On the one hand, the reserves allow them to absorb costs and losses arising from the worsened quality of assets in the adverse macroeconomic environment. On the other hand, they support banks’ lending capacity. Consequently, it is logical to expect that we would continue to apply the measures of the anticrisis package, approved in March this year. Furthermore, we analyse, on an ongoing basis, the situation, and as a macroprudential supervisory authority we consider the likely scenario of a worsening economic crisis and the related significant deterioration in loan portfolios. Under this scenario, banks may need to temporarily operate under the combined capital buffers requirement, being ready to draw up and implement plans for rebuilding them. The prospect of continuing negative developments in the economy is a reason for us to expect materialization of credit risk and deteriorated quality of assets on banks’ balance sheets. It seems very likely that the trend of decreasing amount and share of non-performing exposures, seen over the last few years, may reverse.

The establishment of talent development and research institutions in Islamic finance are now increasingly wide spread in several jurisdictions with several strategic alliances across borders being entered into. The International Centre for Education in Islamic Finance (INCEIF) in Malaysia was set up by the Central Bank with programmes for practitioners and post-graduate studies to ensure the continuous supply of talent in Islamic finance. The current enrollment in INCEIF are from more than 60 countries attracting students including from the UK, Canada, France and Japan and Korea and the Middle East. Equally important to innovative development is a deeper understanding of Shariah and knowledge of Islamic finance and for a greater convergence in the theoretical understanding and practical considerations in resolving the contemporary issues faced by Islamic financial  BIS Review 141/2009  3  industry players. In this regard, a platform has been established for active engagement and intellectual dialogue among global Shariah scholars, practitioners, regulators and academicians. As the global economy becomes a more interconnected and interdependent, the process of greater convergence of financial standards and mutual recognition of products is also facilitating the international integration of Islamic finance across different jurisdictions. Concluding remarks Let me conclude my remarks. While the inherent strengths of Islamic finance have contributed to its viability and resilience, going forward the foundations for its sustainability as a competitive form of financial intermediation continues to be strengthened.