Bank of Albania outlines digital payments progress and sets national instant payments platform as a priority

At a workshop on whether Albania is ready for a cashless economy, Bank of Albania Governor Gent Sejko said the shift to electronic payments remains a central part of modernizing the country’s financial system. In that context, he highlighted the central bank’s role in building the legal and infrastructure framework for digital payments and pointed to reforms already completed, including transposition of the revised Payment Services Directive, development of open banking, adoption of the basic payment account law, modernization of national payment systems and Albania’s entry into the Single Euro Payments Area. He linked those reforms to stronger use of digital payment instruments. Digital payments per capita have risen to 29 a year from five a decade earlier, digital payments are growing by about 25% annually and now make up most payments recorded in national systems. The number of cards in circulation has reached 1.5 million, while the point-of-sale terminal network continues to expand in both size and geographic coverage. SEPA membership allows Albanian citizens and businesses to make EUR transfers at significantly lower cost and under the same standards as in European Union countries. Looking ahead, Sejko said the Bank of Albania’s priority is to build a national instant payments platform based on the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement model and to widen access for payment institutions and electronic money institutions to the national payments infrastructure. He also said further progress will depend on financial education and continued cooperation among public institutions, the financial sector and academia.