The regulatory response to the crisis was oriented towards strengthening the banks’ soundness as well as designing treatment of systemically important banks which certainly require a special attention by the authorities. Systemic risk requires systemic and comprehensive solutions, including changes in the institutional setup. In the EU it was done by establishing crisis management mechanisms, strengthened governance aimed to monitor and prevent against any macroeconomic imbalances, as well as to move towards the banking union. The EU member states and institutions face many challenges when making the new institutional setup operational and when making the necessary adjustments in a reasonable time framework. In addition, all other countries face the challenge of converting the lessons from the crisis into policy actions. The changing role of central banks During the crisis, the role of the central banks moved from traditional way of monetary policy implementation towards combining the monetary and financial stability objectives, both being complementary components of macroeconomic stability. The set of instruments became more complex because of the unconventional measures, designed to bridge the period of extraordinary circumstances affecting the effectiveness of standard instruments, and aiming to strengthen the financial stability or economic recovery. Due to the variety of those unconventional measures across the countries, it is still difficult to assess their impact, although the experiences of countries could confirm the quite largely accepted consensus that the "monetary stimulus" really supported the economy.

However, I would like to briefly address an aspect of macroeconomic and institutional framework, which has been an important determinant of the extent and magnitude of the national authorities’ response to the crises: the exchange rate regime. A quick glance at the current developments in the region and broader allows us to draw the conclusion that the countries adopting a fixed exchange rate regime have been affected by the global crisis proportionally higher. Moreover, they have been more constrained in terms of responding to the crisis. By contrast, countries adopting a free floating exchange rate regime have been affected by the crisis more mildly and smoothly, and they have preserved higher independence in their economic policies for the mitigation of crisis effects. Obviously, this is not occasional: the free floating exchange rate regime is an important political, economic and institutional investment of emerging countries. Their sacrifices in terms of building reliable monetary and fiscal policies, enhancing public confidence in the respective currencies and national financial institutions are rewarded with the flexibility this regime provides to macroeconomic policies in coping with the crises. Exchange rate volatility mechanism is precisely a mechanism that allows the economy to absorb various shocks. The free floating exchange rate regime, devotedly adopted by the Bank of Albania, allows the Albanian economy to withstand these shocks at minimum cost. Let us leave this mechanism operate smoothly, without excessive reactions from the market or its agents. Any smooth moves towards the exchange rate equilibrium will be in the Albanian economy’s own interest.