Country Awards for Excellence 2014: Central & Eastern Europe

Another strong performance in a challenging operating environment earned Banka Kombetare Tregtare (BKT) the top spot in Albania again this year. Despite almost nonexistent growth in the wider economy, the country’s number two lender leveraged its dominant position in the retail market to expand its loan book by 3.7% and its deposit base by an impressive 14.4%, boosting its share of the overall deposit market by 1.8 percentage points to 21.9%. BKT was also one of very few Albanian lenders to see an improvement in its bottom line in 2013, with net profit up 27.1% to a sector-best $39.3 million. Return on equity was slightly below the bank’s long-term average, but remained healthy at 16.6% for the full year, and was back up to 17.5% in the first quarter of 2014.