work becomes more efficient if supported by information technology, at the scale that is sufficient for the size and the complexity of the bank business. from a practical point of view, in those financial systems where the size of certain financial institutions is of a systemic importance, the development of a risk management program is paramount. besides the bank management, whose responsibility, i repeat, is of primary nature, the supervisory authority has a clear interest and responsibility in making sure that individual banks ( and other financial institutions ) understand what they are doing. this interest stems not only from their legal obligation, but also is an instrument in ensuring the public that the financial institutions are managed in a sound and safe manner. in the end, all this gives a remarkable contribution toward the goal of reaching and maintaining financial stability. history and practice have shown that having a good supervision function is very important, but not enough. it is the market that could very well and in a timely way, discover behaviours that indicate imprudent risk taking by financial institutions. in a market that functions under normal conditions, competitive factors force its players to look at each other to identify what can be done better. this is much stronger if complemented by greater transparency and accountability. under a deep and developed market, the work of the supervisors, from the viewpoint of identifying in time imprudent risks that financial institutions are taking, becomes easier. on the other hand, open and developed markets, usually mean more complex products with more complex risk features that require more complex systems to support and monitor them. this requires greater and more skilful supervision. while the market well - functioning and transparency, are elements that help supervision, these elements do not substitute it. firstly, while developed markets mean more capacities to analyse past and future events, the risk is that they still may miss the global picture, as individual institutions do not have the data and most of the times, the need, to analyse the financial stability of the system as a whole. secondly, what individual financial institutions analyse and expect from the future developments, is frequently what they want. one should also remember that financial institutions of a certain important size that expect similar events, have the power to move the market in one direction. based on specific elements of any national or regional market, this does not necessarily show a reduction in the level of risk. moreover, the systemic risk in this case, is still very high. it is then important to provide the supervisor with the necessary analytic tools, to use

of the techniques. stress - testing, used separately and together with other techniques, is a valuable tool in verifying the endurance of our financial institutions and financial system. in the bank of albania, we have a lot of interest in knowing your experiences. hence i would encourage you to provide this workshop with your real examples. i believe you will also enjoy tirana, a city that is changing quickly, even for those who live here. you will understand a little more about this country and its people, and this could prove as interesting as to make you wish to come back again. last but not least, i would like to thank the international monetary fund, mr driessen and his colleagues, for supporting and developing this joint workshop in tirana and for providing their valuable theoretical and practical expertise. thank you and enjoy.