Supervision
The Bank of Albania has the exclusive right to grant or revoke the license for exercising banking activities, and regulates and supervises the commercial banks that operate in Albania. It also fulfils these functions for non-banking financial institutions, such as the micro-finance institutions, and foreign exchange bureaus.
As the regulator, the Bank of Albania issues sublegal acts, such as decisions, regulations, guide and orders, binding for all the supervised subjects, to ensure banking system stability.
As the supervisor, the Bank of Albania pursues, examines and monitors the activity of these institutions, to ensure that they are safe and in compliance with the laws and regulations in force.
The Bank of Albania helps to create a healthy banking system also in its function as “the lender of last resort”. Thus, when a bank or a financial institution has a temporary lack of liquidity, it may borrow from the Bank of Albania, if it cannot secure a loan from other commercial banks.