physical and virtual place in which the bank of italy – while respecting its institutional role – aims to accelerate the development of projects and to promote the quality and safety of specific innovations through a series of consulting services, mentorships and educational components for financial intermediaries, startups and research centres. we have recently closed milano hub's first'call for proposals ', which was based on artificial intelligence '. the feedback was extremely positive, and i believe the second call will be even better, benefiting from the experience we have gained. it was a significant step forward for a constant and constructive dialogue with market participants. this is a unique and privileged perspective for monitoring changes and trends in the financial market. all the information gathered is a great asset for understanding market dynamics and increasing the awareness of the operators'needs and strategies, so as to intercept phenomena of interest promptly. moreover, the dialogue with market participants encourages best practices, i. e. defining common standards and principles in order to encourage the development of sound and sustainable operating models, also with regard to the'economic impact'and to ensure an adequate level of interoperability ( and'interoperability standards') between various technological solutions. the goal is to identify and support virtuous and adequately monitored innovation in the financial and payments system, in order to mitigate the risks that it may entail and to maximize the benefits it may provide to the advantage of the economic system and its components : consumers, households, firms and public administration bodies. to this end, collaboration with academia and research centres is key. conclusion failure to innovate could undermine the competitiveness of our financial and economic system, posing a serious threat to our enterprises, public administration and households. this is a challenge that we cannot ignore. we are ready to do our utmost to support responsible innovation, where resilience and adaptability are opposite sides of the same coin. 1 2021 - fintech - indagine. pdf ( bancaditalia. it ) 2 this paradigm is usually associated with the use of the open api, which allows an application to have access to the data of financial intermediaries and which therefore 6 / 7 bis - central bankers'speeches allows the exchange of information between different operators ( financial intermediaries, technical suppliers and other, non - financial parties ). 3 see statista. 4 https : / / www. bancaditalia. it / pubblicazioni / mercati - infrastrut

system and share with you some stances, which we have generally discussed even previously. the stagnant situation of the financial system during the last year was dictated by the banking system performance, because of its weight. the rest of the financial system, represented by insurance companies and other non - bank financial institutions, underwent a good growth. regardless of this, their share to the financial system remains low. the banking sector was faced with liquidity constraints in the last quarter of 2008 and in the first quarter of 2009. deposit withdrawal from the banking system was withstood, thanks to liquid assets adequacy, capital availability and bank of albania ’ s intervention to supply the market with liquidity, aiming at maintaining its stability and mitigating any expected contraction of the banking system ’ s intermediary role. to this end, the bank of albania has supported the demand of the banking system for liquidity through open market operations. after cutting interest rate by 0. 5 percentage point in january 2009 and mitigating inflationary pressures at home, the monetary policy paid special attention to financial stability, keeping base interest rate unchanged for the whole period. thus, it was aimed to support the demand for financial assets denominated in the national currency in the short run. at the same time, the bank of albania carried out with a strong supervisory regime on banking sector developments. such a stance supported the efficient management of liquidity situation of the banking sector, oriented credit towards national currency and influenced the maintaining of financial stability parameters and capitalization of activity. the situation entered into a qualitative improvement stage, following the re - starting of the process of public deposit growth in the banking sector. this process, which took place gradually and steadily in the second quarter of 2009, continued at satisfactory paces. during this period, banks acted with due prudence and accountability. therefore, i would like to avail myself of the opportunity to thank you, the staff you manage, as well as the shareholders of your institutions, for their commitment and cooperation during this period. however, the liquidity situation and the global crisis effects on the real sector of the economy have brought about underlined decline in lending paces and have reversely impacted the credit portfolio quality of the banking sector. therefore, the financial result of the banking sector, though lower than that of 2008, continues to be positive. it is clear to all of us that the banking sector would face a difficult business climate and needs to adapt in the mid - term.