The role of research in the monetary policy decision-making process becomes even more important under the inflation targeting regime that the Bank of Albania will fully adopt in the near future. Economic literature defines inflation targeting framework, inter alia, as “comprehensive and multi-dimensional information, analyses and statistics”. As in many central banks which adopt the inflation targeting regime, the Bank of Albania has oriented its resources for economic research, mainly to understanding the process of inflation and of its forecasting, and to understanding the transmission mechanism of monetary policy. The building of a macroeconomic model for the Albanian economy is of special importance to the economic research of the Bank of Albania. Moreover, issues related to the real, foreign, financial and the fiscal sectors, as well as other issues related to the improvement of economic statistics are in focus. Undoubtedly, the constant improvement of economic research, of their ethics, quality and significance to monetary policy should be of high priority. The Bank of Albania is conscious of the fact that research in the abovementioned areas should be further consolidated. Dear friends! Allow me to state my opinion that from the strategic point of view the consolidation of research requires the improvement of economic data, the enhancement of cooperation between the public administration institutions and the academia, as well as between various countries, and the absorption and increase of human capacities in this area. Following my speech I would like to briefly explore these three issues. Economic research uses the economic data as its core input.

My main observation from recent experience with handling technology risk is that bank management should adopt a more proactive approach towards increasing the overall robustness of the IT environment, from both the crime prevention and BCP perspectives. In dealing with these IT-related incidents, we noticed the concerns sometimes expressed by bank management about the likelihood of causing unnecessary public panic if these matters were given publicity. Many preferred to deal with the problems quietly. The desire to be cautious and to avoid negative publicity is quite understandable. However, we have found that, far from causing panic, our insistence on publicity has been helpful in alerting members of the public of the nature of risks that they are exposed to as bank customers and how they can protect themselves. It enhances public education on the issues at hand and promotes the exercise of a degree of care by bank customers that the situation demands, not just to protect themselves but also to help in protecting the integrity of the system. Interestingly, nowadays, we sometimes receive reports of fake web-sites from members of the public even before the banks affected become aware of them. Diversification risk The fourth major force shaping the industry is the continued effort of banks to diversify their income source. This is an ongoing and inevitable trend given the increasing competition in the banking market, but it has gathered pace in recent years in response to the increasing pressure on interest income.