TIRANA, Aug. 10 – Tirana Leasing, a non-bank financial institution, part of Greece-based Piraeus Bank, also present in Albania with Tirana Bank, has been taken over, unveiling the difficulties Greece’s second largest lender is facing as the crisis in the neighboring country escalates.
Albania’s Competition Authority has announced that Tirana Leasing has been taken over by Raiffeisen Leasing ShA, a subsidiary of Austria-based Raiffeisen Bank, the biggest commercial bank operating in Albania, for an undisclosed amount.
Established in 2006, Raiffeisen Leasing is the biggest leasing operator in Albania, financing the purchase of vehicles, machinery and equipment for both households and businesses.
Some six companies operated in the leasing market in Albania in 2014 with their loan portfolio slightly shrinking by 4 percent to 7.19 billion lek (€50.5 mln), down from 7.49 billion lek (€52.5 mln) in 2013, according to central bank data.
The leasing portfolio is dominated by financing for transport, personal and work vehicles with more than 90 percent of the total.
Greek banks account for less than one-fifth of Albania’s banking system with their share having dropped to around 16 percent down from 25 percent in the pre-crisis years.
NBG Bank Albania, a subsidiary of the National Bank of Greece, holds 3.3 percent of the total assets in the Albanian banking system. The two other Greek banks operating in Albania, the Tirana Bank part of Piraeus Bank and Alpha Bank Albania, part of Alpha Bank, hold 7.4 percent and 5.9 percent respectively, according to an IMF report.
Experts say the spillover risks from the Greek crisis are relatively low and mainly affect exports and remittances, already on a downward trend since Greece plunged into recession in 2008. Meanwhile, the three Greek bank subsidiaries in Albania are considered safe because of operating as independent from their parent banks.
Greece is Albania’s second trading partner, the largest foreign investor and the key source of remittances from some 500,000 Albanian migrants living there.
