PRESS RELEASE
Governor Sejko on an official visit to Banca d'Italia

On 13 March 2024, upon the invitation of the Governor of Banca d'Italia (Bank of Italy), Governor Sejko led the high-level delegation from the Bank of Albania, on an official visit to Banca d'Italia, in the framework of the excellent relationships between the two central banks and the further enhancement of technical cooperation in various areas.

During the visit, Governor Sejko met with Mr Fabio Panetta, Governor of Banca d'Italia and other senior managing executives, Mr Patrizio Pagano, Head of the Secretariat to the Governing Board Directorate and Mr Luigi Cannari, Head of the Directorate General for Markets and Payment Systems. Discussions focused mainly on the bilateral economic relations, performance of the Albanian banking system, and the most recent developments in the euro area.

First, Governor Sejko congratulated his counterpart Panetta for assuming the new position of Governor of Banca d'Italia and expressed full confidence that the cooperation between the two institutions will continue to strengthen even further.

The Governor stated that the activity of the Bank of Albania is oriented towards the fulfilment of the mission and legal duties, as well as the implementation of the commitments undertaken in the medium-term development strategy. One of the strategic objectives of the Bank of Albania is the modernization of payment systems, and more specifically the membership in the Single Euro Payments Area, otherwise known as SEPA, and the implementation of the Instant Payments project, for which the Bank of Albania is closely cooperating with Banca d'Italia and the European Central Bank.

He highlighted that beyond the modernization of the payment system itself and standardization with European practices, integration into a wider European market will bring benefits to the real domestic economy. Participation in SEPA enables more efficient cross-border payments in terms of cost, time and security. Due to the importance of SEPA’s membership for Albania, in the framework of the country's European integration process, participation in SEPA is a priority for the Bank of Albania, which has successfully fulfilled all the legal and regulatory requirements and is fully committed to finalizing application process within June 2024.

In addition, Governor Sejko underlined that the successful implementation of the project for instant payments will create the premises for the integration of the payment system in the country with the European system TIPS (TARGET Instant Payment Settlement), and can potentially serve as an example solution for other countries in the Western Balkan region.

In more concrete terms, this system will be a copy of the TIPS system operated by the Eurosystem for instant payments and will have the same functionalities and interfaces with it, enabling the national system to be easily integrated with the TIPS system in the future.

The Bank Albania will benefit from Banca d'Italia’s technical assistance, expertise and its important role as one of the member banks of the European System of Central Banks.

Governor Panetta commended the contribution and important role of the Bank of Albania in safeguarding the macroeconomic and financial stability of the country.
He pointed out that the insofar implemented monetary policy and measures undertaken by the Bank of Albania have provided for Albania to have one of the lowest inflation rates and one of the highest growth rates in the region. Also, Mr Panetta praised the initiatives taken by the Albanian authorities to reduce the country's public debt, which has reached its lowest level for more than a decade.

Among other things, Mr Panetta pointed out that the long-standing cooperation between the two institutions has always been fruitful. Governor Panetta appreciated the sustained historical and cultural ties between the two countries as an inherent foundation for this enduring cooperation, which will continue with both the instant payments project and the processing of statistical data.

In this regard, Governor Panetta stated that Banca d'Italia will provided an extensive support and assistance for the successful implementation of the project on modernizing the payment systems and provisioning TIPS clone.

Providing the clone of TIPS is an important project that Banca d'Italia is engaged with, as it includes concrete benefits for the Bank of Albania in two directions. First, this project equips the Albanian market and economy with an instant payment infrastructure, in accordance with European standards according to SEPA, and fosters the developments and improvements in view of the European TIPS infrastructure itself. Second, it prepares the market of payment providers with an infrastructure (clone of TIPS) identical to that used by European Union countries (TIPS). In turn, it further facilitates market integration upon accession to the European Union and access to European payment infrastructures in an easy manner and at minimum cost.

In this regard, Mr Panetta explained that the TIPS clone coverage will enable instant payments within Albania both in lek and euro, as an infrastructure that supports several currencies.

He addressed the importance of access to SEPA, evaluating Albania's efforts for participation in SEPA and the country's developments so far in the legal and regulatory framework to align with the EU Acquis.

Governor Panetta assured Governor Sejko that Banca d'Italia will continue its assistance in areas such as: payment systems, banking supervision and statistics; and extended its full support towards fostering bilateral cooperation and the process of European integration, until Albania becomes part of the European Union.

Concluding, Governor Sejko thanked Governor Panetta for the successful cooperation between the two institutions, especially for the assistance provided by Banca d'Italia in joint projects taking place in the main fields of the Bank of Albania’s activity.