The Bank of Albania is very heedful to external balances of the Albanian economy, regarding their correction as one of the main priorities of the country’s macroeconomic policies. This objective assumes more importance against the backdrop of recent developments in global financial markets. In the long run, its attainment requires ongoing structural reforms, which will enhance competitiveness of the Albanian economy and will generate higher revenues from the export of goods and services. Monetary inflationary pressures remain subdued in the medium run. Monetary expansion has maintained stable annual growth rates during the year, resulting 10.4% in September. Public sector demand for funding has been downward in recent months, making the private sector’s demand provide the largest contribution to money supply growth. Private sector credit grew 14.0% in September, marking a slight acceleration compared with the first half of the year. However, as we have constantly stated, the relatively sluggish performance of private sector credit reflects mostly its weak demand. The banking sector appears liquid and well capitalized to credit the Albanian economy, but it has increased its prudence in terms of lending, thus reflecting the new reality of the Albanian economy and global financial markets. The Bank of Albania assesses that, within the parameters of prudence, there is room for a more rapid growth of credit and for supporting sound investment projects by the banking sector. On our behalf, we will continue to support the financial system with liquidity and monetary stimuli in order to boost lending.

With greater certainty over the provenance of the data, financial institutions and corporates are better able to mitigate the risks of greenwashing. Third, data for monitoring commitments. Technology solutions can help financial institutions and project owners in monitoring and meeting their commitments to ESG targets. FinTechs are providing financial institutions with good data and analytics to assess and benchmark ESG performance against peer companies. Intensel, a winner of the MAS Global FinTech Hackcelerator last year, uses artificial intelligence to analyse climate data and satellite imagery and assess the physical risks faced by assets to floods, typhoons, storm surges, and extreme heat. Fourth, data for reporting. FinTechs are offering tools to automate the reporting process, while being nimble enough to adapt to various standards, such as the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Matter Analytics, another winning solution at last year’s MAS FinTech Hackcelerator, offers reporting solutions that help asset managers, asset owners and banks automatically generate customised and comprehensive impact reports for their clients. The technologies are promising, but that is not to say there are no challenges in this space. First, the ESG landscape continues to evolve. Taxonomies are still being defined and harmonised. These are important efforts that will take some time. Disclosures and reporting requirements are also being formulated by governments and regulators. But financial institutions cannot adopt a wait-and-see approach. They should not look at ESG only from the lens of regulatory requirements.