these technologies intensively. in the financial sector, we call these innovative start - ups fintech firms. there are now several hundred of them in germany. after initially focusing on the front end and the interface between customer and bank, their provision of services has become broader in the meantime. there are now also fintech companies which focus their attention on business - to - business operations. 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches in germany we sometimes forget that success and failure are two sides of the same coin. it is therefore not surprising that some new companies have already ceased their business activities. one such example is the person - to - person ( p2p ) payments market. this entails, for instance, being able to send a payment quickly and easily to your email address or mobile phone number using my smartphone. in germany, some fintech providers in this area had to withdraw from the market when banks and credit institutions took off their gloves and created their own range of services. nevertheless, something good came about from this : the companies ensured that banks became even more customer oriented, and now banks ’ p2p services are being used intensively. the current consolidation period is part of the process of the market maturing. this “ coming of age ” of the market is evident when looking at investments and the way in which they are made. a surge in investments was seen in germany in the first half of the year. in the first quarter alone, almost €700 million was invested in start - ups in the financial sector. compared with the final quarter of 2018, this constituted an increase of almost 80 % and a new quarterly record. 1 these investments are, however, no longer being broadly diversified ; instead they focus on a few large rounds of financing. another sign of the maturity of the market is the increasing number of cooperative ventures between fintech companies and existing players. the cooperation between fintech firms and banks offers both parties major advantages : thanks to the new companies, banks are able to present themselves in a more agile and digital way. “ regtech ” players can, for instance, help credit institutions and other financial market agents make their regulatory reporting systems more efficient by using automation potential for regulatory issues. moreover, innovative solutions based on artificial intelligence are already being implemented to detect cases of fraud and in the automation of processes. there are also high hopes that artificial intelligence can help use credit institutions ’ “ wealth of data ” more effectively – that is, in a way that guarantees complete data sovereignty

ardian fullani : effects of the exchange rate regime speech by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at the lecture of the governor of the central bank of the republic of turkey, mr durmus yilmaz, entitled " current global financial crisis and recent developments in the turkish economy and monetary policy ", istanbul, 24 september 2009. * * * ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to give the greeting speech in this joint meeting, in which our dear and honourable friend, the governor of the central bank of the republic of turkey, mr. durmus yilmaz, will address very important theoretical and practical issues related to the most recent global developments, sharing at the same time his experience in turkey. the global financial crisis hit all the advanced economies severely. it certainly affected the emerging economies of south - east europe, our two countries are part of. the contraction of global economic growth, the decline in foreign trade, the higher risk premiums, the interrupted functioning of the credit system and the rush to get liquidity affected our economies as well. these economies remain closely related to the euro area economy through a number of trade and financial channels. the response of fiscal and monetary policies to this crisis is of prime importance ; this aspect will be thoroughly elaborated by our dear friend. however, i would like to briefly address an aspect of macroeconomic and institutional framework, which has been an important determinant of the extent and magnitude of the national authorities ’ response to the crises : the exchange rate regime. a quick glance at the current developments in the region and broader allows us to draw the conclusion that the countries adopting a fixed exchange rate regime have been affected by the global crisis proportionally higher. moreover, they have been more constrained in terms of responding to the crisis. by contrast, countries adopting a free floating exchange rate regime have been affected by the crisis more mildly and smoothly, and they have preserved higher independence in their economic policies for the mitigation of crisis effects. obviously, this is not occasional : the free floating exchange rate regime is an important political, economic and institutional investment of emerging countries. their sacrifices in terms of building reliable monetary and fiscal policies, enhancing public confidence in the respective currencies and national financial institutions are rewarded with the flexibility this regime provides to macroeconomic policies in coping with the crises. exchange rate volatility mechanism is precisely a mechanism that allows the economy to absorb various shocks. the free floating exchange rate regime, devoted