Of course, RPI has a long history of developing cutting edge technologies and fostering startup companies. RPI’s Emerging Ventures Ecosystem initiative provides an excellent example 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  of how a leading university can help local firms access the knowledge and intellectual property provided by its faculty and students. These types of collaborations are a key ingredient to improving the competitiveness of local businesses and increasing the relevance of the universities to the communities they serve. We should take every opportunity to exploit these partnerships as much as possible to unleash their full potential. The strong foundation that has already been built has clearly been successful, and I expect these partnerships will support the region’s economic vitality going forward. College graduates finding jobs Finally, I know that many of you here today are students, and you may be concerned about your ability to find a good job upon graduation. There is no doubt that this is a difficult time to be graduating from college and starting your career. While finding a job has gotten a bit easier over the past few years, finding a good job can still be a challenge. Indeed, research we’ve conducted at the New York Fed finds that underemployment among recent college graduates has continued to climb even as the unemployment rate has fallen. This is a troubling trend, and one we are actively trying to better understand.
Old-style central bank balance-sheet expansion coupled to ever higher risk-taking, operations that were considered unthinkable until a decade ago, have become almost a 1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  mainstream instruments. The pandemic has tested the resilience of the Albanian economy and of our banking system. It has put an immense social and financial strain on households and businesses and has forced the authorities to act swiftly to address the health crisis and to introduce major policy initiatives in order to contain its impact. The Bank of Albania has used a wide range of policies to support financial activity and aggregate demand. We reduced the policy rate to a historical low of 0.5% and increased the amount of liquidity injected into the system. These actions were aimed at reducing the debt servicing costs across the economy and at supporting continued financial intermediation. In addition, in close consultation with the banking industry, we applied targeted – though temporary – regulatory reliefs, designed to encourage both the temporary deferral of loan installments and the consensual restructuring of loans for borrowers in difficulties, but with sound business prospects. Finally, we took both macro and micro prudential measures in order to strengthen the banks’ balance sheets and preserve their lending capacity. On the fiscal side, the Albanian government delivered fiscal accommodation through: Allocating additional funds to support the health sector; Increasing social transfers to compensate for the households’ loss of income; Offering temporary tax relief to businesses and introducing sovereign credit guarantee schemes to improve their access to finance.