Country Awards for Excellence 2016: Central & Eastern Europe

The inexorable rise of Banka Kombetare Tregtare (BKT) continued in 2015, as the Turkish-owned bank overtook long-standing market leader Raiffeisen Bank to become Albania’s largest lender. By the end of 2015, BKT’s share of the overall loan market had risen to 19.6% on the back of year-on-year portfolio growth of 9.1%, while that of its Austrian rival had dropped to 18.9%. Raiffeisen’s deleveraging was partly driven by a reduction in risk appetite on the part of the parent group, but high levels of legacy bad debts also weighed on growth and profitability.