the bank of albania suggests the periodic review lending activity pension scheme, health insurance scheme and other social insurance schemes, with the aim to maintain these schemes on a stable trajectory and affordable for the state budget. on the management of public - private partnership programmes the public - private partnership programmes ( ppp ) present potential risks to public finances. in this context, the bank of albania welcomes the heightened attentiveness in the draft budget toward potential ppp risks. we also welcome the strengthening of the role of the ministry of finance and economy in conducting a preliminary analysis of these projects and continuously monitoring them. however, in line with our previous position, the bank of albania suggests : including an overall upper limit on the ppps total value. this regulation would supplement the control of the level of potential risk that ppps would have on the soundness of public finances. the integration of contracting and selecting of ppps process with strategic program of investments, as identified in the long - term development programs of the country. finally, continuously improving the professional capacities of units that manage the assessment, contraction and monitoring of these projects, particularly regarding legal and financial obligations that they pose to the budget. * * * honourable chair, dear ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attention! 6 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches

have managed to increase the share of their funding that comes from deposits. however, the bulk of this occurred during the period of high risk aversion late last year and early this year, when investor perceptions were that bank deposits were safer than debt securities and unit trusts. over the past six months, as risk appetite among investors has returned, the deposit funding share of banks has stopped rising. it would seem that banks have largely exhausted the available opportunities to induce investors to increase their holdings of bank deposits. the so - called “ deposit war ” among banks is producing very attractive interest rates for depositors but little net benefit for the banking system as a whole in terms of increasing deposit funding. what is happening to the cost of deposits? the increased competition by banks for deposits has added substantially to their cost of funds. it used to be the case that on average banks paid about 125 basis points less than the cash rate on deposits. now they are paying interest rates that are on average in line with the cash rate ( graph 3 ). in the case of term deposit “ specials ”, which are the main vehicle through which banks are currently competing for deposits, interest rates can be as much as several hundred points above the cash rate. graph 3 table 3 shows how the cost of various types of funding for the major banks has changed, relative to the cash rate, since the start of the financial crisis in mid 2007. it shows that the cost of new deposits has risen on average by 147 basis points relative to the cash rate over that period. this rise was mainly driven by an increase of about 250 basis points in the relative cost of term deposits. the cost of short - term debt relative to the cash rate has not changed much over the period, while the cost of new long - term debt has risen by 173 basis points relative to the cash rate. table 3 estimated change in cost of new funds relative to the cash rate – major banks since july 2007 basis points deposits – transactions – savings – term short - term debt ( incl cds ) long - term debt total source : rba. the table indicates that the push by banks to increase the share of their funding that comes from deposits has added substantially to their costs. at the same time, the cost of long - term debt has risen sharply relative to the cash rate because of the global crisis. these changes in banks ’ cost of funds relative to the cash rate have meant that the relationship between bank lending rates and the cash rate has also become looser