Upon significant alignment with the European capital requirements, the focus will now be on the process of managing liquidity, but also on strengthening risk management in general, especially credit risk, which given the structure of banking activities is the most significant risk in the banking book. Project activities are in line with the latest Joint Conclusions of the economic and financial dialogue with the EU and among other things are aimed to further reduce non-performing loans, i.e. improve the quality of banks’ balance sheets, which is important prerequisite for stronger credit support. I am pleased that this project validates our strategic goal of providing quality statistical data, fully compliant with international and European statistical standards. Specifically, the third project component focuses on the further development of financial account statistics, which is key to identifying cross-sectoral linkages within an economy and thereby identifying any possibility of spillover of shocks from one sector into another. Recently, we have taken a number of activities in this segment. Almost two years ago, we made our first data transfer of the annual accounts - stock to Eurostat, and in April last year, we prepared detailed data on the flow of assets and liabilities for the government sector, which is one of the key components in compiling spreadsheets for the excessive deficit procedure (EDP). The project activities will be aimed to further improving of the quality of this statistics, especially given that its first release is scheduled for next year.
In the coming years, the greater global participation in this developmental process, both directly and indirectly, would enhance the potential role that Islamic finance would have in contributing towards greater global financial stability in the international financial system. BIS Review 136/2008  5