gent sejko : address - 10th meeting of the national payment system committee address by mr gent sejko, governor of the bank of albania, at the 10th meeting of the national payment system committee, tirana, 5 december 2024. * * * dear representatives of financial community in albania! it is always a pleasure to participate in the meeting of the national payment system committee, this year celebrating its 10th anniversary. as the chair of this committee specified, the revolution taking place over the past decade in the payment area in albania has profoundly transformed its every aspect. the bank of albania has guided this transformation, while showing proactive in regard to technological changes in the international payments environment, and leading the market towards the controlled adoption of these alterations. from the regulatory perspective, we succeeded in aligning our framework with that of the european union for payment services. from an operator's perspective, we have provided the establishment of new payment infrastructures, such as the aips euro system, as well as the optimal operation of the national payment systems. from the perspective of a catalyst, we have been quite active in advocating the ambitions of the payment industry to implement the best practices for secure, efficient, and transparent payments. the establishment of the adequate environment has motivated payment service institutions to expand further coupled with the increase in the variety of products offered to the public. the latter has benefited from lower costs, tailored products to needs, and enhanced access to payment services, which has been reflected in an increase at a double - digit rate in the use of electronic payments, reaching 21 electronic payments per capita, compared to only 2 payments in 2015. the costs of conducting bank transfers for electronic payments in lek have been reduced by up to 50 %. at the same time, the use of the aips euro system for domestic euro transfers is estimated to have saved clients above eur 90 million since its start of operation in 2022, with the costs of transfers about five times lower, and the execution timeframe on the same date. today, i would like to focus on two crucial moments that have crowned the bank of albania's multi - year work as a catalyst for developments in the digitalization field. first, as you already know, on 21st november of this year, the european payments council approved the inclusion of albania in the geographical scope of sepa payment schemes. this decision marks a political achievement at the national level as a concrete step towards integrating the country into the european market. under the guidance of

you malaysia ’ s experience in addressing some of these issues. the blue print for the development of the financial sector in malaysia is outlined in financial sector masterplan that was released about three years ago. the masterplan is all about determining the future directions of the financial system and to define the financial structure that is most appropriate to our requirements as our economy moves to the next stage of development. it therefore provides the direction and common purpose for all the relevant parties in the financial sector, the industry, the market participants, the regulators, and the government. in emerging economies, the role of the government and the regulator is important in particular to prioritise policy goals, build the infrastructure, provide the legal and supervisory framework, and in addressing market failures. the key emphasis of the plan is to move toward a more diversified and balanced financial structure with a strengthened institutional framework, enhanced market infrastructure and practices, and an appropriate regulatory environment in line with the transformation that has taken place. the asian crisis highlighted the vulnerability associated with fragmented financial systems and the risk of excessive reliance on the banking sector. strategies therefore focused on introducing reform measures to strengthen the banking sector and develop and enhance alternative sources of financing. the objective is to develop an intermediation structure that will facilitate an economic transformation toward a more diversified economy, namely : · develop the domestic bond market ; · develop venture capital industry to support new growth areas such as the ict and bio - technology sectors ; · enhance the framework for financing the small and medium - sized enterprises or smes ; · develop micro finance services especially micro credit for micro enterprises ; and · strengthen the development financial institutions to ensure more effective use of public sector resources in achieving socio - economic objectives and greater complementaries with the banking sector. following the successful financial restructuring and consolidation of the banking sector, efforts have shifted to building the domestic financial infrastructure. the industry - wide consolidation exercise for the domestic banking institutions after the crisis saw the 71 banking institutions pre - crisis being consolidated into 10 domestic banking groups. the consolidation exercise was a major structural enhancement of the financial system. banking institutions have now attained a minimum capital size that is able to benefit from economies of scale and undertake the necessary investment in technology important to the industry. a major transformation of the structure of financial intermediation can be seen in terms of the deepening and broadening of the private debt securities market. efforts were directed to promote a robust domestic bond market to provide a competitive source of long - term debt funding and viable investment alternatives for