but none of the associated risks. they have generally avoided undertaking traditional banking activities. so for now, absent a substantive change in business models or scale of activities, the fpc is unlikely to want to bring these firms into the regulatory perimeter. the changes to customer relationships resulting from fintech competition could, however, reduce customer loyalty and the stability of funding of incumbent banks. if this happens, the bank of england would need to ensure prudential standards and resolution regimes for the affected banks are sufficiently robust to these risks. figure 2 : financial services value chain and our infrastructure for an overview of the changes occurring further along the value chain see : “ the promise of fintech : something new under the sun? ”, a speech given by mark carney on 25 january 2017, at the deutsche bundesbank g20 conference on “ digitising finance, financial inclusion and financial literacy ”, wiesbaden. available at : http : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / publications / pages / speeches / 2017 / 956. aspx were any fintech providers to become systemic in their own right, they could be brought into the regulatory perimeter ; this could be under the existing statutory framework for designating systemic financial market infrastructure ( fmis ), for example. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches the right hard infrastructure a second, related example is how the bank is working to develop the financial system ’ s hard infrastructure to allow innovation to thrive while keeping the system safe. specifically, the bank is widening access to some of its systems to include psps in order to boost both competition and system resilience. the uk has led the world in innovation in the wider payments ecosystem. and we are committed to keeping pace with customer demands for payments that are seamless, reliable, cheap, and ubiquitous. our challenge is how to satisfy these expectations while maintaining a resilient payment systems infrastructure. that ’ s important because the bank operates the uk ’ s high - value payment system ’ rtgs ’ which each day processes £1 / 2 trillion of payments on behalf of everyone from homeowners to global banks. understandably, we have an extremely low tolerance for any threat to the integrity of the system ’ s “ plumbing ”. currently, only 52 institutions have settlement accounts in rtgs. indirect users of the system typically access settlement via one of four agent banks. these indirect users include 1000 non - bank psps

ardian fullani : strengthening linkages in south east europe. policy anchors and business perspectives speech by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at the joint conference of the bank of albania and the university of oxford “ strengthening linkages in south east europe. policy anchors and business perspectives ”, tirana, 19 september 2013. * * * your excellency prime minister of albania, honourable guests from the university of oxford, dear representatives of the diplomatic corps and academia, dear participants, i have the pleasure and honour to open this joint conference of the bank of albania and the university of oxford, on strengthening the linkages between the economies in our region. three years ago, in september 2010, we invited the university of oxford to support the academic discussion of the bank of albania on the economic growth model and its regional character. at that moment, this debate was misinterpreted as a discussion on the advantages of the market economy and alternative philosophies of the economic organisation of a society. nonetheless, after three years, we all find that the economic growth model has become the main topic of academic, economic and political debate. for a number of years, our economy has been under the grip of the global crisis, reflected mainly in a decelerated economic activity. consequently, investments and lending to the economy slowed down, deteriorating, at the same time, the private and public sector balances. in spite of these developments, the albanian economy has managed to maintain price stability and the overall macroeconomic and financial balances. the albanian financial system has proven highly immune. despite the economic growth slowdown, overall, this system remains liquid, well capitalised and profitable, reflecting the prudent work of the bank of albania over the pre - crisis years. bank of albania ’ s prudent policies and the reaction of the banking sector enabled the system to avoid extreme problems, which would require the use of public funds. we should bear in mind that various banking groups from eu countries, heavily hit by the crisis, operate in albania. the stability of the banking sector has been at the heart of work of the bank of albania, focusing on both financial stability and banking supervision, and on monetary policy and liquidity management. the bank of albania has been proactive and has anticipated problems, aligning itself and the role of its policies with global developments and the domestic market state of affairs. the dim global financial and economic situation has dictated the need to redefine the