Our policy response was conditioned by the concerns of financial stability, assuming that interest rate cuts would speed up deposit withdrawals from the banking system. Bank of Albania took bold and decisive steps to control these problems and restore the credibility in banking system. As the effects of the fiscal stimulus began to phase out and  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  confidence was restored in the banking system, we reduced our policy rate to its historic low in order to provide further stimulus for the economy. More importantly, our supervision of the banking system has been enhanced by establishing a thoroughly new Department of Financial Stability and by bringing financial stability issues in the decision-making process of monetary policy. As a result, the set of tools available to the Bank of Albania has extended to include several macro-prudential measures, which aim to address simultaneously both economic growth and financial stability concerns. I believe that similar steps have been taken by most central banks around the world. Willingly or not, the objective of financial stability is now seen as the central duty of our institutions. It does not matter whether the legal mandate of the central bank is amended to include this new objective or not. What matters is that financial stability is a prerequisite to overall macroeconomic stability and monetary stability.
For small businesses, a key barrier was a lack of trust in non-bank channels. For migrant workers, going to a formal business premise and submitting to a customer due diligence process was intimidating and discouraged some workers from approaching formal remittance channels. This insight allowed us to focus on new ways of allowing workers to conduct remittance without physically visiting an office, such as through mobile channels. Another solution that proved to be very effective was bringing MSB services to the workplace. As a group and in their own familiar surroundings, we found that workers were more comfortable in dealing with formal MSB companies face-to-face. I am also pleased to inform that as previously announced, the Bank has finalised guidance that will allow money service business companies to conduct e-KYC for on boarding customers. This in turn will facilitate an end-to-end electronic process for performing remittance transactions below specified limits without a customer having to physically visit an MSB office. For small businesses, our outreach programs were opportunities we could use to explain the regulatory framework for MSB companies and avenues for redress, thereby increasing confidence in the use of formal channels. Had we focused only increasing or providing information on access points, we would not have achieved the results that we did. Second, small ideas can make a big difference. As I alluded to earlier, language barriers presented considerable challenges in getting our messages across to migrant communities. To overcome this, the industry identified Greenback “ambassadors”, who were individuals from countries of the migrant communities.