The banking market – NCB and Credins grow, Raiffeisen falls

Local banks are growing further in 2018, factorizing even more within the financial system, while the largest capital banks in the euro area are still lowering their market share.

According to data provided by the Albanian Association of Banks, in the middle of this year, the National Commercial Bank and Credins (NCB or BKT) continued to grow at high rates, while Raiffeisen and Intesa Sanpaolo further shrunk.At the end of June, NCB owned ALL 402 billion of assets or 27.96% of total banking system assets. The market share of NCB has increased by 1 percentage point in one year.

Meanwhile, Raiffeisen in the middle of this year owned 16.38% of market assets, from 17.93% a year earlier.After the crisis and the strengthening requirements of regulatory capital by euro area regulators, Raiffeisen has started a process of reducing the size of its activity in Albania. Credins Bank has strengthened its position as the third largest bank in the country with a total assets of ALL 185 billion or 12.91% of system assets.

Credins has increased its market share by 1.1 percentage points in a year .It is likely that in recent years within a medium-term horizon, Credins will become the second largest bank in the country. Intesa Sanpaolo bank is right behind and holds a market share of 10.92%, down from 11.25% a year earlier.

Among the euro zone banks, the only ones that have grown in the last 12 months covered by the statistics are Societe Generale, which has reached 5.92% of the market and Alpha Bank, which owns 5.31% of assets. However, the French bank has decided to leave Albania and has just formalized the agreement to sell its shares to the Hungarian OTP bank.

Union Bank, ABI Bank and Fibank continued to increase their market share, confirming each with increasing ambition to get a greater share within the banking sector.

Meanwhile, banks that have transferred ownership have been falling and are moving towards joining new buyers. Veneto Bank, which will soon be merged with Intesa Sanpaolo, fell to 1.38% of the market, from 1.8% in the previous year. Even NBG Bank, newly purchased by ABI Bank, lowered its market share to 2.54%, from 2.83% in the previous year.

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*Material i përgatitur nga portali SCAN. Ripublikimi mund të bëhet vetëm kundrejt citimit të autorësisë dhe burimit origjinal.