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For the facilitation of the private sector’s access to innovative financial services

Tirana, 14 June 2022 / The Secretariat of Albania Investment Council participates in the forum “Digitalisation vs cash” organised by the Albanian Association of Banks (AAB) with the participation of high-level representatives from the government, banking sector, and the business community. The forum centred its discussion around the treatment of alternative payment channels, the reduction of physical money, the fight against informality, and banks’ access to the e-Albania platform.
In her intervention, our Head of Secretariat, Ms Diana Leka (Angoni), said that AIC has evidenced the key role that banks play in reducing physical money in the economy and strengthening alternative payment channels—already tackled in six AIC meetings when analysed informality and innovation in entrepreneurship.
Furthermore, Ms Leka (Angoni) appreciated the commitment of the banking sector and the government for the measures taken recently toward e-commerce facilitation, clearing system implementation for local transfers and the approval of most of the secondary legislation of Law 55/2020. On the other hand, she highlighted that Albania lags far behind in the region as relates to the usage of POS, debit and credit cards. In the analyses of the Secretariat, especially in the sectoral ones (in tourism, agro, BPO, etc.), businesses (mainly SMEs) underline the high cost of banking services and the high level of informality.
Noting the high commitment of the parties toward digitalisation, Ms Leka (Angoni) recommended the need for a consistent analysis of the progress achieved to date and the current challenges—in coherence with the level and culture of the Albanian society and economy. Based on this reflection, the next step could be designing a roadmap that would consider the sector’s investments and facilitate the private sector’s access, especially SMEs, to innovative services.
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