TIRANA, Sept 20 /ATA/ The Bank of Albania has drafted some changes to the regulation “On the licensing and exercise of the activity of savings and credit cooperatives and their unions,” aimed at tightening control to avoid the participation in these institutions of subjects and individuals involved in unlawful activities and funds originating from them.
The proposed changes provide for additional documentation for entities applying for a license, certifying for each founding member of the SCC, that the person is not subject to criminal prosecution, trial for criminal offenses, is not criminally convicted (by the Ministry of Justice ) and the person is not subject to mandatory execution procedures (by the Office of Judicial Enforcement).
The aforementioned documents must have been issued no earlier than three months from the date of submission of the application to the Bank of Albania.
Savings-credit cooperatives are societies that offer services only to the people who are members of them. In these companies, members can make deposits, as well as access loans or other payment services. The model of SCCs has been particularly efficient for financing those segments of society that, for various reasons, have limited access to the banking sector. This applies especially to farmers and individuals who live and work in rural areas of the country.
According to data from the Bank of Albania, the total assets of the market in the middle of this year reached the value of ALL 13.9 billion or almost EUR 119 million.
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