This contribution was materialised through: Implementing an accommodative monetary policy stance, which supported economic growth, increase in employment and wages, and rise in inflation; Prudential supervision and proactive approach to banking regulation, contributing to the improvement of banking sector indicators; Enhancing the banking system security, by establishing specialised structures to administer the necessary interventions and restructuring in banks facing solvency difficulties; Promoting the development and efficient functioning of the payment system; Promoting financial education; Further fostering the institutional capacities of the central bank, through constant investment in enhancing professional skills, independence, accountability and transparency, as well as through cooperation and exchanging information and opinions with Albanian and international partners. Our activity in 2017 was guided by the Medium-term Development Strategy 2016–2018. In addition, the Bank of Albania has paid particular attention to the implementation of the recommendations left by this Committee in the Resolution “On the assessment of the activity of the Bank of Albania for 2016”. Let me first present an overview of the activity of the Supervisory Council, the highest decisionmaking body of the Bank of Albania. 1. Activity of the Supervisory Council and strengthening institutional governance The Supervisory Council has conducted its activity in line with the provisions of the organic law and the procedures established in the internal regulation on its organisation and functioning. 1/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  In 2017, the Supervisory Council held 15 meetings and took 82 decisions. In addition, it approved 29 regulations and 1 guideline for general application.

In this framework, the Bank of Albania continued to work on the consolidation of inter-institutional collaboration, through the National Payment System Committee (NPSC), which it chairs. The Committee has initiated several projects, most importantly the projects on the compilation and implementation of the draft-strategy for the reformation of the small value payments market, the increase of financial inclusion and the assessment of remittances market. The successful accomplishment of the main legal obligations is supported by a range of other functions of the Bank of Albania. I will now briefly mention some of the improvements in these activities. 5. Other activities of the Bank of Albania  7/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  In the field of statistics, the Bank of Albania has intensified its work to align the methodology on statistics with the international standards and their harmonization with the acquis communitare. In concrete terms, the methodologies on the preparation of financial soundness, interest rates, financial accounts and international reserve indicators are revised. The Statistics Code of Practice at the Bank of Albania was adopted for the first time. This code ensures integrity, quality, access and confidentiality in using and reporting the statistics, according to the international standards. Also, the Bank of Albania, for the first time, published the policy and calendar of statistics review, which ensures full transparency related with the review of released statistics. Since June, Albania implements the IMF‘s Enhanced General Data Dissemination e-GDDS). Some of the statistics are compiled by the Bank of Albania.