supervisory authority of the banking system and of some other institutions performing financial activities. the role of the bank of albania as a supervisory authority is provided for by the law no. 8269, dated december 23, 1997. the licensing, organization and functioning approaches of banks, their obligations to the shareholders, the public and the supervisory authority, are broadly stipulated in the law no. 8365, dated july 07, 1998 “ on the banks in the republic of albania ”. these two laws were approved during ’ 97 - ’ 98, shortly after the country ’ s emergence from a crisis with tremendous consequences to the its social and economical life. accordingly, the established laws aimed at setting up a robust supervisory authority of the banking system, and ensuring the protection of the banking activity from other illegal forms of financial intermediation. further, other laws of particular significance to the banking system were approved, where i could mention the law “ on deposit insurance ” ( 2002 ), law “ on the prevention of money laundering ” ( 2003 ) and the law “ on accounting ”. the law “ on the bank of albania ” and “ on banks in the republic of albania ” have been followed by a number of regulations and instructions established pursuant to their implementation by the bank of albania. these sub - legal acts have aimed at resolving the law principles, mainly in the operational and banking supervision area. in this way, several regulations bearing the same purpose have been established, such as, the regulation “ on the licensing of entities performing banking activities ”, “ on capital adequacy ”, “ on regulatory capital ”, “ on required reserve ”, “ on bank related persons ”, “ on credit risk administration ”, “ on the prevention of money laundering ”, “ on the approval of bank administrators ” etc. we believe that the regulative framework on the whole, has so far satisfactorily provided the progress of banking activity and it serves as a solid foundation to upcoming developments. let me focus deeper on this issue : 1 / 3 a regulative framework is considered to be good, provided that it does not contain a static concept of the issues it regulates ; that is, a regulative framework established not only as an outcome of the instant needs, but bearing the ability to provide the law entities with the necessary principles for a sustainable and controlled activity development even in the foreseeable future. at the same time, the regulative framework needs to be unambiguous and applicable. this

the bank will be focusing in the coming months. on behalf of the organizing committee, i thank persons who so kindly participated in the survey. let me add, however, that while there is no one particular topic dealing with the cost - of - living, we hope that the overall programme will equip you to better manage this area. the bank hopes to partner with persons in the financial services and the education sectors to help with the delivery of the national financial education programme. we are therefore inviting commercial banks, the barbados stock exchange, credit unions and other financial entities to come on board to provide technical and other assistance. we have organized a comprehensive sponsorship package. if you are interested in partnering with us and you wish to obtain more details about the partnerships, please contact ms. sadie dixon at the bank. additionally, the committee with responsibility for developing these partnerships may be contacting you. i must add, that while we welcome the participation and involvement of partners we will not be promoting any company ’ s products and services. the national financial education programme is not about marketing products and services. educating the populace on matters related to finance and economics is a critical aspect of our mandate, it ’ s a mandate that we have fulfilled for years, and this programme is yet another initiative in our education campaign. however, as the nomenclature suggests, this programme will be on the national scale and we hope to make all barbadians financially literate. those of you who read the newspapers yesterday about the number of bounced cheques will agree that there is need for skills in budgeting. the result of such financial management and decisions can lead to a considerable improvement in financial decision - making. the length of the programme will depend on its success. the more successful it is, the shorter its duration can be. we trust that the general public will benefit from the programme. i thank you for listening.