The other challenge to the City that I would draw attention to is the quite different challenge associated with growing social concerns and rising public expectations, which are probably heightened by the rapid pace of financial change associated with advancing technology. In part these concerns relate to perceptions of increased risk of financial instability. There has been, and I suspect will continue to be, increasing public emphasis - both domestically and internationally within the IMF, the new Financial Stability Forum and the BIS, for example, notably in the wake of the recent global financial turmoil - on reducing systemic financial risk and on how to handle systemic disturbances when they occur. But the social concerns go well beyond this sort of systemic issue. They include growing concerns about organised criminal abuse of the financial system, for example; they include an increasing emphasis on consumer protection - particularly protection of the less financially-sophisticated in an increasingly complex environment; and they include questions relating to the financial exclusion of disadvantaged sectors of the community. In all these respects, too, the concerns are not just domestic concerns but have close parallels internationally. It seems to me that in many instances the new technologies, appropriately deployed, actually improve the capacity of the financial system to address these concerns.
In this framework, we would also like to inform you that the Bank of Albania is working for considering, at the shortest time possible, the possibility of increasing the participation amount of individuals, through the Bank of Albania, in the primary treasury bill market, as well as the application of a commission on new operations they will carry out with it. The new level and commission will affect only the individuals that would like to use the Bank of Albania to participate in the primary market. Thanking you again for your attention, I would like to pass on to the discussions about the steps we deem to make. At the end of this meeting, I propose we come out with a concrete plan of actions for a successful implementation of this process. 2  BIS Review 24/2005