Albanian banks told to keep cash

TIRANA, Oct 20 – The central Bank of Albania has told the country’s commercial banks to hold all cash collected in Albania and not transfer cash to banks in other countries.
Currently, there are 16 commercial banks operating in the country and only two of them are locally owned.
Further, most of the activities of the banks have been financed by 80 percent of local deposits.
Thus far, Albanian banks have not suffered from the recent financial crisis in the world.
However, the BoA has always warned the country’s banks to be well prepared for a crisis such as reducing credit and, in this case, preserving their liquidity.
The commercial banks have also been told to reduce hard currency transactions so they have enough cash for any situation.
A recent BoA report said that lending accounts for only 43 percent of the total activities in the banks, but it was still 3.6 percent higher than one year ago.