The arrival of the first digital bank in Albania has been accompanied by strong public controversy, creating quite a bit of confusion among citizens. But the Bank of Albania assures that it has carried out all verifications, both for the shareholders and for the source of Jet Bank's money, guaranteeing their purity.
"Jet Bank's capital has been investigated in the most detailed manner according to all requirements required by law. The BoA has confirmed that this capital derives 100 percent from completely legal sources," the BoA said in an official response to Kapitali.al.
The Central Bank says that according to the requirements of the law, it has also verified the identity of 5 shareholders of Jet Bank, who are entrepreneurs without any problematic record with the law.
"All information, both on shareholders and capital, is in the relevant file for the approval of Jet Bank's license. But the Bank of Albania cannot make this information public due to restrictions, not only internal legal ones for data protection, but also those imposed by the international legal framework as a result of the agreements that Albania has with the European Union," the BoA states.
The public controversy over Jet Bank began after opposition MP Belind Këlliçi publicly raised doubts about the people behind it. He even demanded a response from the Governor and the Bank of Albania on the suspicions raised.
But so far, the BoA has preferred to remain silent in order not to enter the vortex of political debates, but also to avoid what would seem like siding with a private bank, while the BoA supervises and is the regulator of 12 banks operating in the Albanian banking system.
"The Bank of Albania has only one obligation. To strictly implement all the requirements imposed by the law for the licensing of banks. And these requirements have been fully implemented, not only in this case, but for every bank licensed in Albania," says the BoA.
Meanwhile, another issue of debate regarding Jet Bank has been the lack of experience, as the companies and owners that own it have no previous banking experience. However, the Bank of Albania clarifies that it is not the owners who are required to have banking experience.
"The law requires experience for the Bank's management and administrative staff, not for its shareholders. Moreover, many of the world's largest digital banks today have had no previous experience in the financial sector, as these banks are born as new start-up businesses," explains the BoA.
Revolut, one of the world's largest digital banks, was born as a start-up in 2015 in the UK by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, two individual entrepreneurs who had never previously been bank shareholders. Today, Revolut is the UK's most valuable fintech and has more than 70 million customers worldwide.
In recent years, digitalization has become a trend that the whole world is moving towards. The Bank of Albania says that the fact that Albania is also part of this trend is positive, as the country cannot be left behind.
"Any development that modernizes the payment system, lowers costs and reduces cash is welcome, as it brings benefits to the economy," the BoA concludes.
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