"Zero loans for business start-ups"/ BoA: Since August 2023, no new loans have been taken out at the bank for this purpose
Bank loans are no longer being used to finance the opening of new businesses. According to data from the Bank of Albania, since August 2023, no new bank loans have been taken out to open a business.
The credit provided by banks for starting a business has been zero in the last two years. This trend may have resulted from low demand from citizens or large businesses that want to open their own branch, or in cases where there was a request to receive such a loan, but the citizen or business that applied did not meet the criteria required by the bank, so the latter did not approve it.
On the other hand, the stock of existing loans, that is, those who received loans before August 2023 and continue to repay them every month, turns out to be only 5.6 billion lek, with a slight increase from June as a result of unpaid interest or loan restructuring.
The highest amount of credit taken to open a business was recorded in August 2023, with around 1 billion lekë specifically. This type of credit was more present in 2022, only to "disappear" in the following year.
According to data from the National Business Center (NBC), in July alone, 1,843 new businesses were registered across the country, an increase of 45% compared to July of last year. In 2024, 17,500 businesses were registered across the country, about 655 businesses more than in the previous year.
The initial source of capital for opening many small businesses continues to be savings from personal income or loans from non-bank financial institutions.
High interest rates, fees, loan criteria, and the need for collateral sometimes deter many individuals from applying for this loan at the bank.
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