BoA brought closer to EU National Banks practices

TIRANA, July 16 – A Euro 1 million twinning project between the Bank of Albania, and the national banks of Italy and France was completed this week. Over the past 20 months, the twinning improved the working practices of the Bank of Albania in line with the practices of the European System of Central Banks. Concretely, experts from Banca d’Italia and Banque de France worked side by side with the Albanian counterparts, and members of staff of the Bank of Albania have received trainings to assist the country’s economic integration with the Union.
During the launch ceremony, the Head of the European Union Delegation to Albania, Ambassador Ettore Sequi noted the importance of a reputation of trust and reliability of central banks for the economy. On the one hand, he said, that requires a commitment to independence and on the other it requires “trust in the policies and actions of a central bank relies on the technical capacities of that bank, the skills of its workforce, the operational tools at its disposal”. He recalled that “Central banks try to do the best analysis they can and must be prepared to stand or fall by the quality of that analysis – that is what we have helped with through this twinning. We have enhanced the capacity of the Bank of Albania to deal with data, to analyse risks so that it may be better equipped to react effectively”.
The twinning between the Bank of Albania, Banca d’Italia and Banque de France prepared and implemented a plan to raise the capacities of the Bank of Albania in matters such as Supervision and Financial Stability; Coordination of European Integration Process; Financial Literacy; Payment Systems; Statistics; Interbank market. Strengthened Supervisory functions of the Bank of Albania are instrumental to a better functioning banking sector which businesses can trust and rely on. The recent economic and financial crisis has highlighted the importance of central banks for economic stability.
The Euro 1 million project was implemented over a period of 20 months and it was implemented jointly by the Italian and French national banks.