close monitoring. the growth in the nbfi sector is staggering. in the euro area the sector has more than doubled in size, from €15 trillion in 2008 to €32 trillion in 2024. globally, the numbers are even more worrying, with the sector growing from €87 trillion in 2008 to €200 trillion in 2022. the private credit market is a particular concern. it accounts for €1. 6 trillion of the global market and has also seen significant growth recently. the european private credit market growth is accelerating by 29 % in the last three years, but the market is still much smaller than the market in the united states, which is where investors and asset managers are often based. the end investors are pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and insurance firms, but banks play a significant role in leveraging and providing bridge loans at various levels to credit funds. we recently completed a deep dive on the topic and found that banks are not able to fully identify the myriad ways they have exposure to private credit funds. therefore, concentration risk could be significant. 4 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches we know that risk from the nbfi sector can materialise through various channels. one such channel is the correlation of exposures, especially given the growth in private credit and equity markets. we supervisors do not have a full picture of the level of exposure and correlations between nbfi balance sheets and bank lending arrangements, lines of credit or derivatives to and from nbfis. to make the market less opaque, we should further harmonise, enhance and expand reporting requirements and make information - sharing between authorities easier at the global level. the growth in the nbfi market is not the only concern we have about the current risk environment. there is ample evidence in our constant media feeds of rising risks. we need only switch on our news channels to see frightening images of human tragedy, russia's invasion of ukraine, the widening conflagration in the middle east, and even what may be the most significant military exercise yet conducted by chinese armed forces encircling taiwan. there are many reasons to be concerned about rising geopolitical risk, such as supply chain disruptions, energy disruptions and inflationary pressures. they all pose threats to resilience. i'd like to highlight one resulting risk – the increased risk of cyberattacks, in particular the increased threat from nation state actors. our it risk questionnaire shows a significant uptick year after year

the core functions of the central bank. in addition to these functions, we are also engaged in several other activities, which we refer to as ancillary functions and the agency functions carried out on behalf of the government. currency management as you are aware, the central bank has always taken measures to ensure the availability of currency for use by the general public and in 2017, we continued to do the same, while making all efforts to improve currency operations and processes. most importantly, we introduced the single note inspection ( sni ) system to improve the quality of the newly printed currency notes with a view to ensuring zero defects in currency notes. several other internal processes were also improved and upgraded to facilitate a more secure and uninterrupted flow of currency to the market. going forward, maintaining the quality standards of the currency will continue to be the key focus in the central bank ’ s currency management policy. in this context, with a view to further strengthening the implementation of the clean note policy and enhancing sri lanka ’ s image among non - nationals through the circulation of clean notes, licensed commercial banks ( lcbs ) have been instructed to refrain from accepting willfully mutilated, altered or defaced currency notes from 1 april 2018. we are also planning to issue a new coin series in 2018 by changing the metal of the coin, which would reduce the cost of minting, while also increasing durability. in the medium - term, we intend to establish a state - of - the - art cash center to improve currency operations. also, plans have been made to set up coin dispensing / recycling machines island - wide to smoothen the distribution and recirculation of coins in the country to meet the demand. public debt management we consider prudent debt management as one of the highest priorities given the challenge of managing a very large debt stock, while maintaining a proper mix between domestic and foreign financing. in fact, to break away from a potentially vicious cycle of debt, the central bank has made prudent debt management a bank - wide strategic priority in its mission to ensure debt sustainability. as you all know, the central bank is responsible for raising, managing and servicing of government debt and carries out its functions with the objective of ensuring that the government ’ s financing requirements are met at the lowest possible cost in a timely manner, while ensuring the sustainability of debt obtained on behalf of the government. following what was outlined in the previous road map, several measures were implemented