that qualify as eligible liabilities, while danish mortgage banks must sell another variant for a special danish debt buffer. it would have been preferable if the mortgage banks would have had to use eligible liabilities in the same way as other credit institutions in europe. this would also have eliminated the need to use junior covered bonds for financing top - up collateral in the event of future house price falls. * * * bis central bankers ’ speeches finally, if anyone is waiting for me to talk about the banking union, let me reveal that danmarks nationalbank still believes that the interests of danish households and firms, as well as the danish mortgage credit system, will be best served if we join soon. we look forward to the forthcoming debate about this issue. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches

12, 539 bank employee 1, 388 1, 108 number of employees number of branches, agencies number of employees per : bank banking unit number of inhabitants per : table 3 : the expansion of the banks ’ network by the end of the 9 - month period of 2006banks nof no. banks no. of branches no. of agencies raiffeisen bank national commercial bank united bank of albania italian albanian bank italian development bank ( former dardania ) tirana bank national bank of greece ( tirana branch ) international commercial bank alpha bank ( tirana branch ) american bank of albania procredit bank first investment branch ) emporiki bank credit bank of albania credins bank banka popullore union bank total bank ( tirana according to instat, the population of albania totalled 3, 102, 777 inhabitants in 2003, 3, 119, 543 in 2004 and 3, 134, 982 in 2005. 5. the implementation of the automatic electronic clearing house ( aech ) project after the introduction of the rtgs system for the settlement of gross payments, the payments infrastructure expanded with the automatic electronic clearing house ( aech ) system, which aims at reducing the processing time of small value payments considerably, encouraging as such the use of banking payments. over the present year, significant improvements have been made in terms of the information technology and communication with commercial banks, which has been indicated by the programmes used and by the purchase of new programmes by several banks. these programmes constitute a better sustaining for the banking accounting manual requirements and serve to the needs of the institution to expand the activity and introduce new services, such as e - banking. 6. the review of the legal framework related to the payment system in the country, paying a special attention to that part which supports the new payment instruments and actors in the country the abovementioned developments in technology and information have been supported by the bank of albania through the formulation of the regulation ” on the use of information technology and communication of the entities licensed by the bank of albania ”, approved upon the supervisory council decision no. 32, dated 3 may 2006. this regulation will not only assist the provision of a more prudent and complete supervision of the information technology and communication used by banks, but at the same time it will help banks in their day - to - day work and in the use of this technology. moreover, it will increase the security measures that banks should apply in order to provide the security and the good use of the information