, operating in several fields, and spread over 20 countries – in the caribbean, central and north america and europe. the official data showed that cl financial was an extremely strong and profitable conglomerate and that clico was the centerpiece of the group. it was clear that the group had major vulnerabilities, the most notable being the excessive amount of related - party transactions. from the beginning, we recognized that regulation of the insurance industry, which was accustomed to being unregulated, was always going to be a major challenge. and we knew that clico, being the biggest company, would be in the forefront of this process. financial regulation is most effective when you have the confluence of a number of factors including an adequate legislative and regulatory framework ; an effective supervisory system ; including highly trained regulators ; a regime of supporting and supportive institutions such as the accounting and auditing profession and support from an informed and vigilant investor community – or market discipline. even with all these pieces in place, any licensee who is committed to exploiting loopholes, to taking excessive risks with policyholders ’ and depositors ’ funds, and to bending the system could go undetected for a while and in so doing could do a lot of damage. our insurance legislation dates back to 1980 and is very archaic. by way of example : • clico, with assets in excess of over $ 24 billion, only requires capital of $ 3 million. this compares for example with banks which must have capital equivalent to a minimum of 8 per cent of its assets. thus, a bank of clico ’ s asset size would have at least $ 2. 0 billion of capital ; regulatory capital requirements for the insurance industry is only now being developed. • even when the central bank formally took over regulation of the industry, the legislation had limitations with respect to on - site supervision ( and formally it still does not ) ; • while the legislation did not restrict related party transactions, there were significant deficiency or loopholes and this was, perhaps clico ’ s greatest vulnerability ; and • it is silent on the issue of actuarial methodology, which allowed companies to use their own standards which could result in a lower statutory fund requirement. as the bank and the industry proceeded to work on a new insurance act, we tried to achieve, by moral suasion, what would have been mandatory under appropriate legislation. thus for instance : • we insisted on on - site inspections of clico ; • in the face of concerns

honourable minister shala, honourable chairman of the cbk board, mr mrasori, honourable deputy governor, representatives of financial institutions, honourable participants, ladies and gentlemen, i am pleased that today we are all together marking the world consumer rights day, which is now transformed into an annual activity for the central bank of the republic of kosovo. the special feature of today's organization is that this is happening within the activities of marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of cbk, so we are in a good moment to reflect on the development of kosovo's financial system over these 20 years and our orientation for the development of this sector in the future. kosovo started developing the financial system in 1999, at a time when everything had to be developed from the outset. the first years of cbk's operation were mainly related to the construction of the basic infrastructure necessary for the functioning of the financial system, starting from the regulatory and supervisory framework, the payment system and so on. over time, together with the highly valued support from our international partners, cbk managed to advance its capacities at the same level with the central banks of countries with a longer tradition of the financial system. cbk went through different development stages, and so did the financial institutions operating in kosovo. the first years of their operation were quite challenging, because they operated in an environment of high uncertainty and significant lack of information. nevertheless, the improvements made in the financial infrastructure and in the overall business environment in kosovo, together with the growth of maturity of financial institutions and cbk during these 20 years, have resulted in a modern and sound financial system that is successfully implementing its role of financial intermediation in support of the sustainable development of the country's economy. nowadays, our financial system is generally characterized by steady growth of activity and a very satisfactory level of financial health indicators. whereas, in the first years of operation of the financial system, the focus was on creating the conditions for providing basic financial services for the country's economy, now we have reached a level where more attention is given to the quality of these services, where undoubtedly, activities aiming consumer protection of financial services occupy a very important place. for us, consumer protection activities represent a daily task that we exercise with the utmost seriousness, and this day will be used as an opportunity to make a general reflection on these activities. consumer protection is not a single action, but an entire process that promotes responsible behaviour of financial institutions by incorporating various aspects that, besides protecting the