Some of the priorities in the work of the Bank of Albania in this regard have been the following:  First, the Bank of Albania continued improvement of its supervisory and regulatory framework aiming at its approximation with EU acquis and Basel principles. Revision of regulations has been aimed at implementing the requirements on strengthening the capitalisation standards for banking activity; Second, in the same line, we have further progressed towards assessment of the equivalence of our supervisory and regulatory framework with the EU acquis. This equivalence is quite important to reduce the operation costs of the banking industry in Albania and to further prompt expansion of the banking sector and development of financial markets. In this context, we carried out an independent assessment of equivalence, pursuant to the new methodology published by EBA. This re-assessment concluded that both our regulatory framework and supervisory practices have a high convergence with the European Union standards. Based on this conclusion, we submitted our request to EBA to include Albania in their official assessment process. Third, we completed the regulatory framework on payment services. Upon the approval of the Law "On payment services", the sub-legal acts regulating the activity, supervision and management of risks for entities which provide payment services were approved in 2022. Completion of the regulatory framework enables the safe and effective functioning of electronic money institutions, by creating the premises for increasing payment services, strengthening competition in the market, and enhancing both transparency and protection of Albanian consumers.

In this particular case, there are tremendous competitive advantages to be reaped from the global experience and expertise of the Tokio-Marine Group, combined with an intimate knowledge of the Malaysian market derived from Asia Life’s long-standing presence in the domestic market. With Tokio Marine’s presence in all three life, general and takaful sectors, the Tokio Marine-Asia Group alliance in Malaysia is also well-positioned to take full advantage of cross-sector synergies to effectively implement strategies that are responsive to the changing market conditions and consumer demands. Let me, therefore, congratulate all of you who are part of this exciting transformation. Ladies and gentlemen, The life insurance industry in Malaysia continues to face exciting opportunities as well as challenges. As some of you may be aware, an important long-term economic issue which we are now grappling with concerns pension reforms which are aimed at ensuring adequate financial provisions for the ageing population during their retirement years. Malaysians today live longer and have fewer children. By the year 2020, the percentage of the population above the age of 60 years is estimated to more than double to 16% of the population, from only 7% in 2000. The demographic changes also have significant implications for healthcare financing. With the ageing population and medical inflation, total expenditure on healthcare has continued on an increasing trend. A large proportion of that is borne directly “out-of-pocket” by individuals, or by employers as part of employment benefits for staff.