advance on what has gone before. financial stability let me turn now to the bank ’ s second core purpose, the maintenance of financial stability. on the same day that the bank of england bill was introduced into parliament, the chancellor launched the new financial services authority, the fsa, which will become responsible for the authorisation and regulation or supervision of effectively all forms of financial services activity in the uk. this is an extraordinarily bold and radical step, not attempted on anything like this scale in any other developed financial centre, and the experiment is being watched with great interest by other central banks and regulators from around the world. but there are very strong reasons for moving away from the traditional model of a separate regulator for each different type of activity - banking, securities, insurance and so on. financial innovation and globalisation, driven by an interactive process of new information technology, competition and deregulation, are, unquestionably, progressively blurring the traditional boundaries between different forms of financial intermediation. so regulation based on particular categories of institution has increasingly become overlaid by functional regulation. that has made the whole regulatory structure increasingly complex, both for the regulated firms and for the consuming public at large. it has made it increasingly complex, too, for the regulators! there are no fewer than nine separate regulators joining the fsa. the new organisation may look big and complex, but i have to tell you that the task of co - ordinating the interests and responsibilities of all those separate regulators, across the business of an increasing number of multi - functional groups, was threatening to become bigger still. firms with complex financial services activities here in the uk welcome the idea of a one - stop regulatory shop where at present they have to deal with a bewildering array of different regulators for different purposes. a single, over - arching, regulator will mean a clear line of responsibility and accountability, and it should also help to bring about greater consistency of regulatory approach. in relation to banking supervision in particular there seem to me to be real advantages in separating out the central bank ’ s responsibility for the stability of the financial system as a whole from the supervision of individual banking institutions. in the latter case, we have seen during the twenty or so years that the bank has had statutory responsibility for banking supervision how the public policy interest in our activities has increasingly focused on consumer protection. that is not at all a natural habitat for a central bank. it may indeed produce a conflict of interest if it

kind of interbank cooperation would not only serve to increasing the amount of payments channelled through banks, but also to enhancing the competition. another difficulty encountered in this context is the implementation of bank accounts direct crediting by the utilities. this has been due to the concentration of these companies in certain banks, and also because of the problems encountered in the standardization of the bills according to particular banks ’ requirements. the bank of albania continues to be committed to finding a solution to these problems. 3. the expansion of the atms and the pos ( point of sale ) automated teller machines ( atms ) experienced a further development over 2005 - 2006. most banks have established a number of atms in tirana and in other main cities throughout the country. the number of electronic terminals has grown from 93 at the end 2004 to 266 in august of the present year, while the number of users has increased from 34, 090 to about 295, 250. atms are used through debit cards, but credit cards are also being widely used. both visa and mastercard are actively being used in albania and most banks are members in one of them, providing the respective cards. although the use of cards is still limited, the growing number of service units accepting electronic payments ( pos - point of sale ) from 155 in december 2004, to 1073 in august 2006, and the gradual change of the attitude favouring the holding of cash will lead to the enhancement of the use of cards as a mean of payment. the service of electronic transactions ( e - banking ) as a banking product began four years ago, although it may be said that it has not reached satisfying levels as far as its introduction and the use by the public is concerned. so far, two banks have been providing this service to particular clients ( mainly businesses ) for the carrying out of transfers, different payments etc. over the present year, other banks have planned to provide this service. table 1 : number of cards and atm / pos cash cards 26, 736 173, 161. 00 220, 657. 00 debit cards 6, 552 50, 066. 00 70, 176. 00 credit cards 2, 550. 00 4, 245. 00 136. 00 169. 00 pre - paid cards total 34, 094 225, 913. 00 295, 247. 00 atm 205. 00 266. 00 ef / pos terminals 779. 00 1, 073. 00 4. the network and