Looking ahead, according to the Bank of Albania, the main risks to economic stability pertain to economic growth. A number of signals from the real and financial sectors show that the contraction of consumers’ balance sheets and slowdown of investments, used so far by economic agents  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  as buffers to the crisis, may imperil the mid-term prospect of economic growth. The propensity to save and defer investments may affect the competitive advantages and growth potential of our economy. Deleveraging, mostly driven by regulatory requirements that are not related to the performance of the economy, may undermine the existing financing channels, which have been so far an important component for growth. According to the Bank of Albania, the current situation requires higher attention and courage by all economic agents to make the right decisions for development and in response to the challenges arising from the external environment. In a more general setting, the Bank of Albania believes that implementation of right macroeconomic policies by harmonising the monetary and fiscal policies, is a prerequisite for the country’s sustainable and long-term development. They should have two main components: support growth and sustainable development for the country’s economy and boost long-term development through encouraging structural reforms. In Bank of Albania’s view, our economy is flexible and the infrastructure of core services, financial services and regulatory framework is constantly improving. The labour force is competitive, in terms of cost, and increasingly qualified.

We observe financial firms engaging in a variety of ways with fintech companies. This can be through the development of in-house projects such as setting up innovation labs or encouraging developers to code on open application program interfaces (APIs). This can also be through collaboration with industry consortiums to come up with unified industry standards that enhance operability and enable future technological advancements, or it can be through partnering with or investing directly in fintech companies. Some of the interesting questions for supervision revolve around things like: what new benefits might these new technologies bring? Will they enhance existing processes or bring about entirely new solutions to existing financial sector problems? Will they create risk, mitigate risk, or simply reallocate existing risks? How should the current supervisory framework evolve to incorporate these types of developments? The New York Fed is assessing the implications of fintech developments through participation in a wide range of Federal Reserve System, interagency, and  3  “Digital Disruption: How Fintech is Forcing Banking to a Tipping Point,” March 2016. BIS central bankers’ speeches  5  international efforts. In addition, we meet regularly with supervised firms, fintech companies, and industry groups to follow these developments. Our supervisory program will continue to evolve with the underlying technologies. •  Reputation risk Over the past few years, the New York Fed has been challenging the financial industry to consider the many factors that have contributed to recent, widespread misconduct and the perceived lack of trust in the financial sector.