ardian fullani : the fight against money laundering luncheon speech by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at an anti money laundering workshop, tirana, 22 june 2005. * * * dear participants, the subject of today ’ s workshop is, as you well know, a matter of great concern worldwide. the way we fight money laundering ( ml ) and counter the financing of terrorism ( ft ), does not have an impact on us only, but also on our neighbours and any other country with which our citizens and companies perform trade and financial relations. in these last years, to this issue has been devoted considerable time and efforts by you, by albanian authorities and by international organisations. besides meeting each other again and exchanging opinions on general issues, i want to use this opportunity to share with you some thoughts about the importance of the existence of a culture against ml in the institutions we represent. i will refer in this case to banks, meaning non - bank financial institutions as well. following that, any consideration about ml will be valid also for the ft, for which i am convinced that our awareness and that of the public, is complete. with the term “ culture ” on anti - money laundering ( aml ), i refer not only to the existence in the bank of structures responsible for aml and its related procedures. i am aiming at the need for the existence in any bank, of a real concern and of a positive pressure to make sure that those structures and procedures are applied to their real meaning, throughout the institution and down to any single employee. at the same time, i mean the real willingness of the bank for a careful and proactive role in the inter - institutional relationships, with the aim of leaving away the formalism and qualitatively improving the process of aml. i will be focusing in more details on these issues, as i proceed. prior to proceeding with more details, allow me to put myself in each of your ’ s position. i feel i can do this, since i was one of you, as the executive director a commercial bank and head of the association of banks. we have shared common concerns about the speed and about the quality with which the legal requirements on aml were approved and implemented in practice. i still believe that a law is good when its requirements are applicable in practice and when they represent affordable costs for its subjects. i must say that the existing law on aml, needs to be revised under these considerations.

ardian fullani : financial stability issues and cooperation at a regional level speech by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at the bank of albania ’ s 6th international conference, “ regional financial markets and financial stability – a concept between national sovereignty and globalisation ”, tirana, 31 october 2006. * * * dear participants, ladies and gentlemen, when we thought about the topic of this annual conference, there was no doubt about the need to dedicate it to financial stability issues and the cooperation at a regional level. the current time seem to be appropriate because of the developments in the national financial markets and economic developments, as well as in the speed with which the region is moving ahead in adopting best international standards in good governance, market openness and integration, technological improvements and multilateral cooperation. in my speech today, i will touch upon similarities and differences, but also uncertainties and risks that our financial markets are experiencing in the path toward modernisation and integration in the global financial markets, and will try to address the importance of regional cooperation in better facing these challenges. i will conclude with some thoughts about practical regional cooperation, which i am sharing with you, hoping to generate further discussions. at a regional level, our countries are experiencing nowadays a higher growth rate of the financial markets, compared to that of the economic growth. as a consequence, the weight of the financial sector in the national economies, strictly from a quantitative perspective, is growing. at the same time, expansion is accompanied with changes in the market ability to better accommodate market participants needs for funding, diversification and risk appetite. undoubtedly, institutional participants in the financial markets find themselves with a larger number of possibilities for business developments and financial specialization. in addition, general public interest in using financial market products and services has increased dramatically based on the benefit they perceive from improved efficiency in everyday life activities. these developments highlight the importance of financial markets for our economic well - being, from a qualitative perspective. let ’ s also recall that economic improvements trigger and support changes in social and cultural aspects of our life, bringing our nations closer to international values and principles, and to each other. as expected, because of the historical background, our countries have differed in the speed and in the depth, with which they have moved along the transition phase in the last decade. while we had many similarities in adopting the first basic and urgent reforms including price liberalization, enterprise restructuring and privatization in some economic areas, we were more distinctive in