BoA adopts changes to lower inter-bank fees

TIRANA, March 8 – Albania’s central bank has approved some changes to the interbank payment system which it says will significantly lower fees for customers and increase transparency. The move came few days after the Competition Authority accused commercial banks of not being transparent with customers and charging higher fees even compared to regional branches within the same banking group.
Under the new changes, small-value payment systems in the Automated Electronic Clearing House System (AECH) will have their threshold increased up to a maximum of 1.5 million lek, from 1 million lek in an effort to increase the use of the system considering the much favourable fees it offers. Currently, AECH fees are a mere 4 lek per payment compared to the 250 lek fee applied for the Albanian Interbank Payment System – AIPS.
The changes also foresee the increase in the number of clearing sessions in the AECH system which will enable banks to make their customer payments almost in real-time at low commission fees. The holding of another third clearing session during a working day will make a smooth distribution of payments.
However, the Bank of Albania says the commercial banks can benefit lower AIPS and AECH tariffs only if they lower commission fees for their customers under a contract with the central bank.
BoA says it will impose a price ceiling for payments or transactions that second-tier banks apply when customers use the AIIPS and AECH systems and apply differentiated clearing fees of 4 to 8 lek to lower the traffic of payments in peak times during the working day.
Few weeks ago, the Competition Authority found after monitoring the market for more than one year that banks often charge fees in euro and not in the national currency, lek, for some services such as current accounts or cheques putting consumers at risk of facing negative currency exchange rate effects. The monitoring also revealed second-tier banks in Albania, which are overwhelmingly foreign-owned, apply different fees for the same services and do not notify their customers when commissions increase, violating the regulation on the transparency of banking products and services.
However, Albania’s Association of Banks has rejected government accusations that banking fees are too high, saying a study it had commissioned showed fees were on a par or cheaper than those in the rest of the region.
Governor Ardian Fullani says banks in Albania face no competition problems and that banking fees accounted only for 2 percent of the banks’ budget revenues. “I confirm that the banking sector is the most controlled and well-supervised sector, it is the most regular tax-payer as well as accountable and transparent,” said Fullani recently.