protection against loss through theft could be developed in the future. there is some risk of insolvency by the issuer, but at least for financial institutions that risk is very low statistically. a greater problem is that until the stored - value system becomes universal, there is a risk that the sellers will not accept the card. payment systems involve a network – money is not truly money unless it becomes nearly universally acceptable – and network problems have been a big impediment to the development of any currency system. this is one reason that electronic money systems may be more likely to develop in natural closed systems or in small countries. one apparent cost of electronic money for consumers, at least in comparison with credit cards, is that of float. in benefit - cost parlance, float is an internal redistribution – a cost of electronic money felt by consumers offset by gains to other sectors. float then should not affect the overall social interest in electronic money. moreover, in the long run we might expect the competitive market to offer electronic money products that compensate consumers for their loss of float. electronic money systems might raise a potential trade - off between protection and privacy. consumer protection could be enhanced by stored - value systems because there could be a record of all transactions, and this record could be used to resolve disputes or to deal with losses due to theft, in much the same way that consumers ’ credit cards are now protected. at the same time, this record could also be misused to defraud consumers or infringe on their financial privacy, by irresponsible action on the part of the issuing institution or in some other way. consumers could sacrifice their protection but retain their privacy by purchasing cards without this extensive record - keeping or by signing “ opt out ” forms to prevent the disclosure of confidential information. consumers could also limit invasions of privacy by keeping low balances on their card or restricting its use, but this limits the utility of electronic money in the first place. from the standpoint of merchants, electronic money systems raise orthodox benefit - cost questions. it is costly for merchants to invest in the infrastructure to process the stored - value cards, much more so than for credit cards because of the encryption technology or the difficulty of verifying electronic tokens. but once merchants have made the investment, costs of handling at least some types of payments should go down. compared with credit and debit cards, there may be little cost reduction. compared with checks, there is less risk of default because the

respectively. the number of physical points of sale grew 19 % in 2014, compared to 2010. recently, we have also seen an increase in virtual services through the development of infrastructure for the realisation of e - commerce. the expansion of infrastructure for the use of cards is accompanied by the considerable increase in the number of debit and credit cards in circulation. in 2014, 777. 195 debit cards and 84. 824 credit cards were issued, or, in relative terms, increasing 103 % and 20 %, respectively from 2010. notwithstanding the innovations, cards in the world remain very convenient, preferred and secured instruments. ( while these tendencies show progress, in britain statistics reveal a decrease in the volume of transactions via cards, due to electronic transactions via mobile phone or other means. ) the increasing use of electronic services such as home banking is a considerable development. thus, in the last years, these services were more used and the users ’ spectrum expanded, including not only businesses, which where the target group at the start of supplying this service, but also by individuals. at the end of 2014, the number of accounts accessible via internet stood at 145211, from 27368 at the end of 2010, followed by fourfold increase of such transactions conducted via these accounts. the encouragement of the use of payment instruments is reflected in the increase of activity of settlement and clearing systems operated by the bank of albania. in 2014, the activity of the albanian interbank payment system ( aips ) grew by about 1. 5 times, compared to the beginning of operations of this system in 2004. also, the albanian electronic clearing house system ( aech ) shows a considerable increase. the value of transactions cleared in this system, during 2014, was 10 times higher than the value of transactions cleared in 2005, when this system started to operate. the measures taken by the bank of albania in march 2011 contributed to the use of the clearing and settlement systems. the measures consisted in the reduction of commissions applied to the users for transactions in the albanian lek. i would like to underscore that large spaces still exist for improvement and narrowing the gap between the albanian market and the advanced markets, and to some extent between the regional markets,. they should, therefore, constitute our common challenge for the future. in the framework of encouraging market towards these innovative services, the bank of albania as the regulator and catalyser has undertaken recently a set of measures. in more concrete terms, the establishment of legal