fadilj bajrami : continued cooperation with central banks of the western balkans address by mr fadilj bajrami, vice governor of the national bank of the republic of macedonia, on the occasion of the first programme steering committee meeting of the ecb regional cooperation programme with central banks in the western balkans, tirana, 17 april 2014. * * * honorable governor fullani, honorable governor hamza, dear mr. sturm, dear mr. rumbold, representatives of central banks, ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor and pleasure to be here with you in tirana on the occasion of the first meeting of the steering committee for the joint cooperation project between the european central bank and the national central banks of the eurosystem, and the central banks of the western balkans. as my colleagues have already noted, most of the activities of the project will be devoted to identifying the needs of the central banks of albania and kosovo in the process of their joining the european system of central banks, by strengthening their capacities and compliance with the standards of the central banking in the eu. last year, the national bank of the republic of macedonia successfully implemented such a project in cooperation with the ecb and the eurosystem. the project implementation has clearly identified the changes that the nbrm should focus on during its preparations for accession to the european system of central banks. namely, the final report on the needs analysis programme for the national bank of the republic of macedonia contained 138 recommendations addressing the gaps in terms of the eu benchmarks established in 11 areas of central banking. it is my pleasure to point out that some of them have already been implemented, and some of them have been incorporated in the strategic plan of the nbrm, that is in the national bank ’ s plan of activities for this year. however, the overall implementation of the recommendations will require additional technical assistance in terms of experience and knowledge of the ecb and the national central banks of the eu. therefore, the inclusion of the nbrm in this regional project, which aims to facilitate the preparations for the implementation of the recommendations we received in the report on the needs analysis programme for the nbrm, by establishing a plan for their implementation, is very important. it will be the basis for the preparation and the implementation of a subsequent project, as well as the basis for further planning and promotion of the bilateral cooperation with the central banks with which the nbrm already has a traditional cooperation, but also for

financial markets infrastructure. we strongly believe that the hub will be a central point of contact with the industry, including the fintech firms, and will enable building internal capacities for adequate implementation of the new technologies and monitoring of the associated risks, as well as serve as a platform for sharing information and discussing best practices. finally, the innovation hub will also bring the prospect of using digitalization for supervisory purposes, as a complement to our current supervisory methods, principles, and judgement. suptech is becoming synonym for exploring new technologies, especially in the area of supervisory data collection and analysis. the survey performed by the financial stability institute on the use of innovative technology2 reveals that within data collection, supervisory agencies across the world use applications for supervisory reporting, data management and virtual assistance, while within data analytics, applications are used for market surveillance, misconduct analysis, as well as micro - prudential and macro - prudential supervision. to facilitate the contact with the industry, the national bank has recently developed an innovation gateway, as a platform where firms can raise questions and get answers concerning the regulatory framework. the main purpose of the gateway is to facilitate, encourage, and support innovation in financial services, by providing information to all firms willing to pursue innovative business activities. it provides a clearly visible interface to our website and offers an insight view on issues related to application of new innovative technologies. we are pleased that through this channel, launched a couple of weeks ago, we have already received several queries from fintech firms coming from eu member states as well as local fintech company that intends to offer new services in the payments area. our internal expert group will interact with these entities to properly understand their business model, the benefits they bring, potential risks and asses how they fit in the current regulatory framework. one of the main priorities of the hub in the following period will be to develop a financial services digitization strategy. the main goal of the strategy will be to provide an enabling environment, including open and affordable access to core digital services and infrastructures. one of the main components of this strategy is to landscape the fintech ecosystem in the country and to identify the emerging financial services business models and the key barriers to entry for newcomers. a very important component of this strategy will be an analysis of the current national regulatory framework, trying to identify and consider whether it is sufficiently certain and flexible to apply in the modern digital context. a legal framework that is consistent, clear, and predictable is key to fintech innovation