TIRANA, June 8 – Albania has one of Europe’s lowest levels of bank account penetration with only 38 percent of the population possessing an account, according to the 2014 Global Findex Database measuring financial inclusion around the world published by the World Bank.
The survey shows only around 8 percent of the population aged 15 and over have formal savings at a financial institution and only 10 percent are engaged in formal borrowing.
The survey unveils around 44 percent of Albanians have borrowed from family or friends and another 2 percent have borrowed from a private informal lender.
Possession of debit and credit cards remains at low levels at 22 percent and 4 percent respectively. More than a quarter of the population, some 27 percent is reported to have received domestic remittances in 2014.
Only 2 percent of the respondents reported using the internet to pay bills or buy things.
The report which classifies Albania as an upper middle income country, said some 1,000 face to face interviews were conducted in Albania in 2014 to reach the country conclusions whose margin of error is estimated at 3.5 percent.
The Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) database, launched by the World Bank in 2011, provides comparable indicators showing how people around the world save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. The 2014 edition of the database revealed that 62 percent of adults worldwide have an account at a bank or another type of financial institution or with a mobile money provider.
