It is crucial to ensure, however, that this does not result in unchecked increases in risk appetite or compromises the quality of risk management practices. What was once a “black swan” event has increasingly become more common due to the high inter-linkages between international economies. As such, we need to be vigilant and ensure all potential risks are addressed and comprehensive risk management measures are adopted, both at the macro and micro levels of the economy. Regulatory reforms in line with risk management Let me turn now to the regulatory reforms in line with the risk management practices. The global financial crisis has exposed weaknesses in the existing international financial architecture and highlighted the fragmentation of regulatory rules across different jurisdictions. It has been a wake-up call for the world to come together to implement regulatory reforms to strengthen the foundations of financial stability and address the issues in the international financial system. For Malaysia, the recent global developments will not alter much the fundamental tenets of Bank Negara Malaysia’s approach to the regulation and supervision of the financial institutions. During the past decade, we have developed and implemented our Risk Based Supervisory Framework and our Risk Based Capital regime. Under these benchmarks, regulatory capital requirements and Bank Negara’s expectations in terms of governance and risk management are already well aligned with the specific risk profiles of individual institutions. The risk assessment and supervision of individual institutions are also further complemented with macro-prudential assessments to monitor the aggregation of risks in the financial system.

The findings from the market, needs assessment and scope for intervention were materialised 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  in a National Strategy on the Modernisation of Retail Payment 2018–2023) The Strategy aims for improvements in the retail payment market to provide Albanian citizens with more options to choose from for their daily transactions, more easily and more cost-effective, by supporting the objective for a broader-based financial inclusion. The strategy lays down concrete and measurable objectives, such as the doubling of the population having a bank account (from 38% in 2018 to 70% in 2022), the increase in the number of electronic payments per capita, from 4.3% in 2016, to 10 in 2022 (increase by 130%). The Strategy aims also legal and regulatory improvements, which lay the foundations for  innovative initiatives, and a level playing field. In this regard, the Bank of Albania finalised the drafting of the law “On Payment Services in the Republic of Albania”. The approval and implementation of this law will provide a crucial contribution to establishing services at low cost and easily accessible by the public, and promoting competition and innovation also based on a prudential consumer protection regime. This will be the theme of the first session of the Conference. Also, the Strategy aims at infrastructural improvements. In this regard, a set of measures are envisaged to promote interaction among various actors from the infrastructural point of view, aiming at reducing costs, in particular, for end users.