geoff bascand : brighter money – enhancing innovation and embracing heritage speech by mr geoff bascand, deputy governor and head of operations of the reserve bank of new zealand, at the launch of brighter money, wellington, 20 november 2014. * * * seeing people ’ s initial reactions to the new banknote designs is a heartening reminder of what an important role currency plays in our lives, and what a sense of pride and heritage our notes evoke. three years ago, when we launched the project to upgrade new zealand ’ s banknotes, we decided to retain representation of well - known new zealanders and flora and fauna on our notes. our research showed that new zealanders were satisfied with the themes of the existing notes and the denominations available. looking at the designs in print, we ’ re very proud of the way new zealand ’ s rich cultural diversity, world - class achievements and unique heritage have been brought to life as part of the new designs. from our world famous mountaineer and explorer sir edmund hillary, through to our nobel prize winning scientist lord rutherford, the stories that we ’ ve celebrated as new zealanders will continue to live on through future generations. some new ones may even emerge as the sharper and more colourful pictures on the notes bring flora, fauna, landscapes and history alive. but our brighter money doesn ’ t just celebrate innovation and the pioneering new zealand spirit through the images depicted on the banknotes – the notes themselves are at the forefront of banknote technology. it ’ s been 15 years since the current new zealand banknotes were last upgraded, and printing and design techniques have advanced significantly. in 1999, new zealand was one of the few countries to be printing banknotes on polymer – now, it ’ s increasingly common as central banks around the world work to produce durable, secure currency. security features have also advanced considerably in the last 15 years, and our new notes contain more sophisticated security elements that greatly enhance the overall design. the transparent windows are larger, and striking holographic features will help to make the notes very easy to verify, but hard to counterfeit. more details about these features will be made available closer to the time the notes are released. new zealand is very fortunate, in that we have low rates of counterfeiting by international standards. but since the last banknote upgrade in 1999, there have been significant advances in copying, scanning, and printing technologies and the cost of this technology has reduced. as a result, the economics of counter

gent sejko : including monetary policy and financial shocks and trends in modelling and policy analysis address by mr gent sejko, governor of the bank of albania, to the tenth south - eastern european economic research workshop “ including monetary policy and financial shocks and trends in modelling and policy analysis ”, tirana, 1 december 2016. * * * dear participants, i am privileged to open the 10th south - eastern european economic research workshop organised by the bank of albania, and welcome all new and returning friends. i would like to congratulate bank of albania ’ experts that present every year their research works for discussion. this year ’ s workshop will focus on the main topics that prevail in the economic, political and academic debates in the field of economy, finance and central banking. the topic of this workshop is : “ including monetary policy and financial shocks and trends in modelling and policy analysis ". the focus was placed on these topics on the grounds that the central bank and policy decisions should take into account an increasing number of shocks that are arising not only as a consequence of economic, but also of political, legal and regulatory phenomena. the challenges that monetary policy and financial stability are facing reflect the problems of the society in the economic, social and geo - political aspects. these challenges are best reflected in the noneffective functioning of the pass - through mechanism that should transmit and amplify the positive effects of central banks ’ decisions. these challenges increase ambiguity, uncertainty and volatility in goods, services and financial, markets, broaden and intertwine the nature of shocks and place the authorities vis - a - vis new and unprecedented phenomena. these developments render the well management of monetary policies and financial stability even more difficult as a result, scientific research needs to : explore and propose new solutions, more efficient empirical and theoretical models for policy implementation by central banks ; assess the effects of the adopted policies ; and, carefully observe the side effects in the economy or the financial system, which may potentially accompany such policies. due to unconventional monetary policies, central banking is practically in unexplored territories ; therefore, it is necessary to carry out an assessment of how the economy reacts to shocks under such circumstances. the bank of albania is interested in identifying potential shocks and their modelling with a view to guaranteeing optimal solutions in terms of prices, economic activity, employment and financial system soundness. for that reason, we invite you to discuss openly and thoroughly all the papers that will be presented during these two