Greece holds major share of capital in banking system

TIRANA, March 13 – The Albanian banking system is characterized by a relatively large number of private banks, sixteen of them, overwhelmingly foreign-owned, financed primarily through deposits, and focused on the lending activity, mainly for businesses. The entire banking system is now privatized, and the largest share of the capital is owned by foreign entities. The country which holds the largest part of the capital is Greece (18.75 percent), followed by Italy (12.5 percent), France (11.7 percent) and local capital (10.66 percent), according to a study by Open Data research centre referring to central bank data.
Compared to 2010, there is a reduction of the amount of capital held by Greece (from 25 percent to 18.75 percent), and an increase of capital held from France (from 4.69 percent to 11.72 percent). This is the result of the acquisition of Emporiki Bank from Credit Agricole. Also there is a decrease of ownership from international financial institutions (from 4.71 percent to 4.22 percent).
Other countries with an important weight are Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Kuwait and Turkey. The Albanian banking system does not present a noticeable concentration of capital in a particular country, and this can be considered a positive element due to the diversification effect, experts say.