The National Commercial Bank is applying an aggressive strategy of moving the capital collected from the savings of Albanians towards international markets, creating what can be considered a “financial hemorrhage” for the local economy.
Only during the third quarter of 2026, the bank has made a big tactical move by sending abroad a full 9.4 billion LEK (about 103 million Euros) within a 3-month period.
This move includes increasing deposits in non-resident banks by LEK 4.25 billion and lending to foreign financial institutions in the amount of LEK 5.16 billion, mainly to take advantage of high interest rates in the Eurozone.
Financial hemorrhage
This latest move is only the tip of the iceberg, as the total stock of money that BKT has taken out of Albania has reached colossal figures. According to the data of the audited financial statements, the full stock of BKT’s total placements abroad is worth an extraordinary amount of over 2.22 billion Euros.
This giant mountain of money, which turns BKT into a global investment fund, consists of 1.75 billion Euros in international securities and Eurobonds, 267.1 million Euros in short-term liquidity deposits in foreign banks and a full 377.5 million Euros in loans given directly to international financial institutions.
This is a deeply problematic structure. Over a third of all wealth and liquidity collected by BKT does not reside in Albania, but is distributed across international markets in the form of Eurobonds, deposits and interbank loans, leaving only 66% of assets for the domestic market.
Besides draining the national economy of liquidity, which flows out and does not finance the country’s economic growth, these mass relocations carry a major regulatory question mark. The bank’s official reports do not reveal in which specific countries this money was invested and what risk class (credit rating) these foreign instruments have.
But there is a whisper that BKT has also invested in African shares or bonds or Azerbaijan, countries which are not known for high investment security. Being the largest bank in the country, BKT’s strategy causes considerable costs to Albania.
