PRESS RELEASE
Decisions taken by the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania, 2 September 2020

On 2 September 2020, the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania reviewed and decided to:

• Approve the Financial Stability Statement and Financial Stability Report for 2020 H1

The Financial Stability Report is an important periodic document prepared by the Bank of Albania whose main purpose is to identify and assess risks to the financial system and its infrastructure. The Financial Stability Statement, whose half-yearly release is a legal requirement set out in the Law “On the Bank of Albania”, prefaces the Report.

The Bank of Albania estimates that in the first half of 2020 (hereinafter, the “period”), the activity of the banking sector developed steadily, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic situation in Albania. The operational measures taken by the banks to ensure the continuity of critical functions and client relations, and the measures taken by the public authorities to mitigate the pandemic impact on the economic and financial activity of Albania, enabled the financial intermediation activity to continue appropriately and the financial indicators of the banking sector remain at good levels. Uncertainty about economic developments in the presence of the pandemic remains present, and so do the challenges to banking and financial activity. However, assessments of the banking industry and stress test exercises suggest that the banking sector's capacity to meet these challenges is currently sufficient. The Bank of Albania remains ready to take all necessary actions according to the law, to support the banking activity and to contribute to the stability of the financial system.

The full Financial Stability Report will be published in the coming days on Bank of Albania's website http://www.bankofalbania.org/.

• Several amendments in the Regulation "On the risk management from large exposures of banks" and "On several amendments in the Regulation "On consolidated supervision"

Amendments to the regulation "On the risk management from large exposures of banks" come as a result of the ongoing review of the supervisory regulatory framework, in order to harmonize it with the EU acquis and the documents of the Basel Committee on the large exposure regime, but also considering the features and developments of the Albanian banking market. They also include some new reporting and monitoring requirements for banks, which are also reflected in the amendments to the regulation "On consolidated supervision", to ensure consistency in reporting large exposures by banks, both on individual and consolidated bases.

The Supervisory Council was also informed on other daily functional and operational activities of the Bank of Albania.