PRESS RELEASE
Bank of Albania and EBRD organise a workshop on Albanian factoring

On 5 September 2017, the Bank of Albania organized the workshop " Albanian Factoring", in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The workshop was attended by representatives of the Bank of Albania, the EBRD, commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, etc.

This workshop was aimed to raise the awareness of banks and financial institutions on the advantages of expanding the factoring service in Albania, as an opportunity to finance business, especially for small and medium enterprises.

The factoring service is part of the Albanian financial system. The regulatory framework of the Bank of Albania provides for the licensing of banks or non-bank financial institutions for this service. Currently, eight non-bank financial institutions and nine banks are licensed by the Bank of Albania for providing factoring.

The Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Albania, Ms Natasha Ahmetaj and the representative of EBRD in Albania, Matteo Colangeli, welcomed the participants and opened the workshop.

In her speech, the Second Deputy Governor Ahmetaj emphasized the fact that factoring can be an important service in the Albanian financial system, and it has the potential to develop further. Therefore, the Bank of Albania will cooperate with groups of interest to identify real potential obstacles to the further development of this service. From Bank of Albania observations, the market in Albania needs such services, as they can provide more funding than the traditional lending institutions and reduce credit risks.

The representative of EBRD noted that factoring is a little known service in Albania and needs to be promoted. In addition to benefits in business funding, this service also enhances the competitiveness of the economy, an objective that is broadly supported by the EBRD.