Lending activity of Albanian banks expected to improve in 2017

Albanian Association of Banks expects a better performance of the banks lending activity during 2017, media reports showed Sunday.

The banking system here is expected to be more aggressive in terms of lending to economy, Spiro Brumbulli, chairman of the association, said in an interview to a local media Sunday.

He said the banks are more prepared and ready to support a growth of business compared with last years.

The institutions drafting the budgetary, fiscal and monetary policies have forecast a 3.8 percent economic growth for 2017, which means larger room for business development.

Brumbulli said the bank will provide more support if business develops.

However, Brumbulli estimated a growing cycle of loans interest rates mainly in the second half of the year.

He also said the procedures to get a loan will continue to remain rigid, despite the aim of Central Bank policy to boost lending.

There will be more attempts to keep the bad loans under control while the banks profitability will further improve, Brumbulli added.

According to media reports, other representatives of the association also believed that it is necessary to keep under control the level of non-performing loans, which hit the level of 20 percent of the total during the last year.

In their view, the lowering of the bad loans would give a new impetus to the new loan. Endit