This has been due to the concentration of these companies in certain banks, and also because of the problems encountered in the standardization of the bills according to particular banks’ requirements. The Bank of Albania continues to be committed to finding a solution to these problems. 3. The expansion of the ATMs and the POS (point of sale)  Automated teller machines (ATMs) experienced a further development over 2005 - 2006. Most banks have established a number of ATMs in Tirana and in other main cities throughout the country. The number of electronic terminals has grown from 93 at the end 2004 to 266 in August of the present year, while the number of users has increased from 34,090 to about 295,250. ATMs are used through debit cards, but credit cards are also being widely used. Both Visa and MasterCard are actively being used in Albania and most banks are members in one of them, providing the respective cards. Although the use of cards is still limited, the growing number of service units accepting electronic payments (POS-Point of Sale) from 155 in December 2004, to 1073 in August 2006, and the gradual change of  BIS Review 101/2006  1  the attitude favouring the holding of cash will lead to the enhancement of the use of cards as a mean of payment.
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.