The Islamic financial system thus has an in-built dimension that promotes financial soundness and stability, as it resides within a financial trajectory underpinned by the forces of Shariah injunctions. These Shariah injunctions interweave Islamic financial transactions with genuine productive activities and prohibit involvement in illegal and unethical activities. This intrinsic principle of governance contributes towards insulating the  1  ICLIF Leadership Competency Model – Syed Naquib al-Attas & Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud. BIS Review 95/2007  1  Islamic financial system from the potential risks of financial stress triggered by excessive leverage and speculative financial activities. Equally important is that the key components of the Islamic financial system, comprising the financial institutions, the markets and the financial infrastructure, has demonstrated its viability and robustness as a form of financial intermediation, with a mutually reinforcing role in enhancing the overall stability of the financial system. Its growing role in mobilising and channeling the funds to productive investment activities across borders brings significant benefits to the global economy. Firstly, it has the potential to contribute global growth and contributing towards some rebalancing of the global growth given that it brings about a more inclusive financial integration. Secondly, the strengthened international financial linkages allows for the potential for greater diversification of risks. The increase in the Islamic financial products, the growing number of assets classes being offered, the increased cross ownership of assets have all expanded the possibilities for greater diversification of risks and the potential for return.

However, for online card payment transactions, due to the necessary significant technical changes, both for payment service providers and merchants operating e-shops, However, the delayed application of security requirements for online card transactions should not adversely affect customers. During the transitional period, payment service providers should recover the value of all unauthorized card payment transactions on the Internet for which no indepth identification of the customer has been applied, and the BNB monitors compliance with this requirement. Although the pandemic has led to some delays in the implementation of migration plans, according to available data, we expect Bulgaria to successfully complete migration by the end of the year within the projected pan-European deadline. Along with the work on the implementation of the current legal framework, many efforts are focused on its further improvement with a view to the emergence of innovative market participants, new technologies, changing business models. In September, the European Commission published the Digital Finance Package, part of which is the “EU Strategy for Retail Payments” and the “Strategy for the Digitalisation of EU Financial Services". The aim of both strategies is to outline the medium-term guidelines and priorities for the development of digitalization in the financial sector. Central to the payment strategy is immediate payments, executed within seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, called the “new rule” in the strategy. Bulgaria is not lagging behind these trends.