TIRANA, June 15 – Raiffeisen has lost its leading position in the Albanian banking system after more than a decade of operations in the country while the share of Greek-owned banks has sharply fallen during the past seven crisis years.
The Albanian subsidiary of Austria-based Raiffeisen has been the country’s largest bank and lender since it entered Albania in 2004 when it took over the state-run Savings Bank. Its leading position has now been overtaken by Turkish-owned BKT, part of the Calik Group, present in Albania with Albtelecom and Eagle Mobile operators.
However, the Austrian giant has diversified its portfolio with in the emerging investment and pension funds.
Data published by the Association of Banks shows Raiffesen was the country’s second largest bank at the end of 2015 with 21.5 percent of total assets and 19.6 percent of total lending compared to 25.4 percent of assets by BKT and 19.8 percent of credit.
Bank of Albania data show Raiffeisen Bank has considerably lowered its exposure to Albania’s domestic public debt since the onset of the global crisis in 2008 as part of its funding withdrawal policy.
Meanwhile, Greek-owned banks, which were affected by considerable deposit withdrawals represented 14 percent of total assets and 17.6 percent of total credit at the end of 2015.
The share of Greek bank assets in the Albanian banking system is reported to have dropped to 15.3 percent, down from 16.8 percent at the end of 2014 and 25 percent in the pre-crisis years.
Greek-owned Tirana Bank, Alpha Bank and NBG Bank suffered considerable deposit withdrawals in 2015 as the situation in Greece deteriorated in apparent panic withdrawals despite appeals by the country’s central bank that deposits in Greek banks operating in Albania are safe because of operating as independent from their parent banks.
The Albanian banking system has remained liquid and profitable during the past crisis year but faced a sharp increase in non-performing loans currently standing at about 18 percent, down from a historic high of 25 percent in mid-2014.
