IMF survey shows access to financial services has frozen

Data shows Albania had around 20 commercial bank branches per 1,000 km2 in 2013, the same to the onset of the global financial crisis in 2009, a situation reflecting the freeze in their expansion activity.
TIRANA, Sept. 23 – As elsewhere in the region, the past five global crisis years, have frozen access to financial services among both households and businesses even in Albania. The latest Financial Access Survey published by the International Monetary Fund shows both the geographical outreach and the use of financial services stagnated in the 2009- 2013 period when the 16 overwhelmingly foreign owned banks operating in Albania saw their non-performing loan portfolio quadruple to around 25 percent and credit growth dropped to moderate negative growth rates in 2013.
Data shows Albania had around 20 commercial bank branches per 1,000 km2 in 2013, the same to the onset of the global financial crisis in 2009, a situation reflecting the freeze in their expansion activity.
The number of commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults has remained at 22 despite slightly dropping to 21.91 in 2013, down from 22.42 in 2009. Meanwhile, the number of ATMs per 100,000 adults has slightly increased to 33, up from around 31 in 2009.
As far as the use of financial services is concerned, the survey shows the number of borrowers from commercial banks per 1,000 adults rose to 136 in 2013, down from 140 in 2012 and 99 in 2009.
In the volume of accounts, data shows the outstanding deposits with commercial banks increased to 71 percent of the GDP in 2013, up from 69 percent in 2012 and 58.4 percent in 2009.
Outstanding loans from commercial banks dropped to 38.9 percent of the GDP in 2013, down from 40.2 percent in 2011 and 37.2 percent in 2009.
The survey provides no data about registered mobile money accounts, a newly introduced service. “Over the past decade, the emergence of ‘mobile money’-the practice of sending, receiving, and storing money using mobile phones- has improved the lives of populations that generally do not use commercial banks, even when access to more conventional banking models remained difficult,” says the survey.
The Financial Access Survey provides geographic and demographic data worldwide, offering a strong quantitative underpinning to the theoretical literature linking financial inclusion and economic growth. The positive correlation between the increase in the use of commercial banks services (a measure of financial inclusion) and the increase in GDP per capita (a measure of economic growth) is especially noteworthy when comparing financial inclusion trends.