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.

system, whether from internal weaknesses or external shocks can therefore quickly lead to a financial crisis. the resulting economic hardship can take years, or even decades, from which to recover. a very good example of this phenomenon was seen during and after the global financial crisis. vulnerability to climate change 1 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches but let me start by addressing one of the major external risks to caribbean economies, namely the climate crisis. our region is one of the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. indeed, when we refer to climate vulnerable economies, caribbean countries are always the highest ranked by any measure. rising sea levels, more intense storms such as hurricane beryl, which caused significant damage to a number of caribbean islands in late june, prolonged droughts, and flooding have become our unfortunate reality. these climate - related risks have a direct bearing on financial stability, as these systems don't just devastate homes and infrastructure, they can also have adverse effects on the financial system. for example, the destruction of infrastructure can lead to loans becoming nonperforming, as businesses and households may default on their debt. banks and other large financial entities in turn, may face liquidity problems, which can trigger a systemic crisis. furthermore, as governments attempt to rebuild after the event, this often leads to an increase in public debt, which puts further strain on their ability to finance essential services and infrastructure. imagine the strain on our resources that would have occurred had any of our islands been hit by the back - to - back hurricanes that recently devastated florida and other states along the us south coast. climate - related risks are particularly challenging to manage because of their unpredictable nature and the difficulty in quantifying their economic impact. caribbean regulators must therefore continuously monitor these risks and implement forwardlooking policies to mitigate their effects on the financial system. the impact of global economic shocks in addition to climate change, external economic shocks pose another serious risk to financial stability in the caribbean. our economies are heavily reliant on global trade, tourism, and remittances. any disturbance in the global economy such as a recessions in our major trading partners or sudden changes in commodity prices can ripple through our financial systems. take, for instance, the fallout from the covid - 19 pandemic, which brought the world to a standstill in 2020. it was an economic shock of unprecedented proportions for the caribbean. indeed, our tourism sector, a lifeline for many economies, came to