A total of 45 bank branches have been damaged, 24 of them severely, along with 53 ATMs, Shella said.

Speaking at a meeting at the Bank of Albania attended by Prime Minister Edi Rama and commercial bank executives, Shella said the banking sector’s priorities were protecting staff and customers and ensuring the continuity of services.

Around 15% of bank branches in Tirana are currently closed, while the remainder continue operating, mostly on their regular schedules, he said. Damage to ATMs was also a concern because they are an important channel for customers to carry out transactions.

Shella stressed that physical damage to individual branches should not be confused with the functioning of the banking system as a whole.

The AAB supervisory board chairman said the banking system remained liquid, with a loan-to-deposit ratio of around 50%, among the lowest in Europe. This, he said, reflected banks’ strong liquidity and capitalisation, enabling the sector to meet financing needs and continue supporting the economy.

He added that the banking sector remained committed to serving individuals and businesses despite the damage to parts of its branch network.

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Data from the Bank of Albania show that the banking system assets totaled 1.985 trillion lek in the end of March up by around 15 billion lek since beginning of the year.

Albania’s banking system assets grew 6.1% year-on-year in first quarter of 2024, marking a significant increase taking into account the negative impact of the exchange rate on the foreign currency-denominated assets.

Lending portfolio amounted to 739 billion lek in the end of March increasing by 21 billion lek since the beginning of 2024 and by 7.1% compared to the same period a year ago.

Banking system reported net profits of 9.8 billion lek, making an increase of 24% compared to the first quarter of the previous year.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama, banking system executives and representatives of the new financial services companies Fintech attended the meeting, with discussions focusing on the need to further expand state’s modernization through integration of technology and digitalization of the financial services and the banking products.

Prime Minister Rama considered the discussion of a strategic importance, underlining the fact that Albania can no longer remain closed off to innovation in the banking system, as technology, with its advancement, provides countries with the opportunity to take major leaps in a short time.

Providing more solutions and alternatives in delivering payments and financial services would allow cost reduction of the bank transactions, would combat informality and cash flow circulation.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Hello everyone and thank you for taking the trouble to come here and for your readiness to take part in this discussion that, in my view, is of strategic importance, since I think time is high for us to better understand each other for the fact that we can no longer afford remaining closed off to innovation in the banking system, we can no longer remain a country still caught up in a gap between the way our financial system is built and works, the way our household economy is built and works and we can no longer continue being a country with an unacceptable volume of cash flow in circulation, dealing at the same time with a very high expense of the currency paper or money printing. We can no longer afford continue making efforts to formalize the country’s economy through traditional methods of imposing fines and carrying out physical inspection actions, because such a method has turned out to be unsuccessful and we can’t afford remaining a country, where banks still grapple in tackling the needs of the economy when it comes to the transactions speed and efficiency. In a nutshell, direct payments are mostly made through traditional methods.

Albania should focus – and the government is actually focused, but this is not a matter concerning the government only – on innovation. The law clearly stipulates that all second tier or commercial banks operating in the country should have started implementing the open-banking protocols since January this year and January was actually a postponed deadline.

We have a banking system definitely bearing all the positive features of a traditional system and we are all satisfied with this fact. Albania is no longer on (the Financial Action Task Force) grey list and we have all the reasons to loudly call on banks to live up to this challenge, which is a challenge for Albania.

It is a strong challenge for Albania and there are three areas where Albania can, not just progress, but excel in Europe and not only in the region, namely in tourism, energy and innovation. Banks are there to unlock the doors of development, to unlock the doors of technology and unlock the doors for Albania to move forward much faster, going from a country with the highest use of cash in the economy to a country without cash in the transactions in daily life and this is absolutely possible.

The main Fintech operator here actually operates with foreign banks. Why? This is because the financial services technology Fintech is not provided with the very same access here domestically. Can we afford dealing with these new forces stemming from the talent, stemming from the vision and the new mindset as if they are “orphans” in their own homeland in front of banks acting as if being fortresses with the movie-like castle gates that nobody can open them up and wide to allow innovation in?

We wish to see businesses selling their goods and products via these systems, we want to see real reduction of the cash flow, we want to witness real increase of money transparency and real increase in country’s revenue and we want to deliver on this peacefully and in complete understanding.

We will deliver on it in any case and we will definitely do so, because we can no longer accept and tolerate the inertia of this terrible situation.

Therefore, I would beg all banks, primarily the Bank of Albania to strongly lead this process, because the central bank should absolutely do its part. The Bank of Albania should definitely build an innovation supervision mechanism to oversee progress of work with innovation.

Thank you very much!

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According to BoA official data, in August of 2021, bank deposits increased to 248 million euros.

In total, foreign currency funds of the Bank of Albania in the form of deposits amounted to ALL 109.4 billion.

According to the BoA, this indicator marked an annual increase of 28% compared to the same period a year ago. //a.i/

The Bank of Albania announced on Wednesday that, the loans in Albanian Lek increased by 9% at the end of August of this year.

According to the BoA, Lek-denominated loans portfolio accounted for 52.6 %, up from 51.4% a year earlier.

The expansion of lending activity in the local currency was supported by easing monetary conditions, as well as a more prudent approach to the exchange rate – mainly related to household credit. //a.i/

According to the BoA, in the first 6-months of this year, the banks profit increased by 47% compared to the same period a year ago.

Experts estimate that the profits of the banking system are returning to pre-crisis levels showing an upward trend towards normalcy.

The BoA announces that, interest income increased by 5% on an annual basis in the 6-month period of this year, after the recovery of the economy. Non-interest income expanded by 30%. //a.i/

The Bank of Albania announced today that, during June of this year, loans to households increased by 83%, compared to the same period last year.

Credit to individuals is being supported by high demand to invest in real estate.

While, low interest rates and the willingness of banks to finance in this segment has encouraged individuals to borrow to invest, mainly in real estate and new business ventures.

At the end of June of 2021, the total bank loan portfolio reached ALL 624.4 billion. //a.i/

According to the BoA, in 2020 the share capital of the banking system increased by about ALL 10.1 billion, or 6.56% compared to a year ago.

The capital structure continues to be dominated by foreign capital, which, at the end of 2020, represents about 76.04% of the paid-up capital of the banking system, with a decrease of about 1.12% compared to the end of 2019.

The Bank of Albania announced today that, at the end of 2020, the banking system remains consolidated in 12 banks, of which 4 are banks with Albanian capital and 8 with foreign capital. 6 of these banks originate from European Union countries. //a.i/