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Albanian Assembly questions Jet Bank licensing amid BoA oversight
The Bank of Albania's exclusive remit over licensing framed a parliamentary interpellation on the proposed digital Jet Bank on 17 October 2023.
2026-05-09 · 2 min
Albanian Assembly questions Jet Bank licensing amid BoA oversight
The Bank of Albania's exclusive remit over licensing framed a parliamentary interpellation on the proposed digital Jet Bank on 17 October 2023.
The plenary session was requested by Democratic Party MPs, with Prime Minister Edi Rama delegating attendance to Minister for Relations with Parliament Erjona Ismailaj. The Albanian Assemblyhttps://parlament.al/lajme/ee9c304f-a561-457f-b6b4-08db43bb3dad summary said the discussion stressed transparency and institutional oversight around the licensing process for the digital Jet Bank.
Minister Ismailaj said licensing of banks is not within the competence of the government or the Prime Minister but lies exclusively with the Bank of Albania. She added that the Constitution and the law on the central bank guarantee its independence. Attempts to delegitimise the institution harm financial stability and public confidence. Internal governance is collegial, with members appointed for legally protected terms, so the government has no competence to issue instructions, interfere with, or change central bank decisions.
MP Belind Këlliçi asked for clarifications on verification of shareholders and the source of capital, guarantees for the safety of citizens’ deposits, and on the institutional and international control of the licensing process. He referenced transparency and alignment with European standards in the context of EU integration.
No procedural change was announced.
For applicants and investors assessing an Albanian bank launch, the signal is straightforward: build the licensing file to Bank of Albania standards, and assume institutional scrutiny will test provenance of funds, shareholder verification, and deposit safety representations. Expect targeted questions on how ownership is verified, how source of capital is evidenced end to end, where client-funds protections sit in the firm’s governance and risk framework, and what external touchpoints exist for institutional or international oversight. This means tighter documentation trails, third-party attestations where available, board-minuted approval of capital contributions, and clear mapping from policy to control to evidence for any transparency commitments the applicant makes in its submission.
The minister’s emphasis on independence also narrows the engagement perimeter for founders. Political forums may surface questions, but applicants should plan for procedural interaction only with the central bank’s licensing team and its collegial decision process. There is no governmental escalation route to alter timelines or instructions, so sequencing should follow the central bank’s requests, and communications should run through formal channels. This aligns the Albanian process with the European norm of insulated prudential decision-making.
Compliance leads on prospective applications should pre-assemble a disclosure pack keyed to the queries raised in the interpellation: ultimate beneficial owner verification, capital provenance narratives with banking records, deposit safety and safeguarding constructs, and a single transparency register that points Bank of Albania reviewers to where each claim is evidenced in the dossier. Governance teams should minute these positions and ensure sign-off is traceable to the board or equivalent.
What to watch next is any clarification the Bank of Albania may choose to publish on documentation expectations or review cadence for new bank licenses. The Assembly discussion did not set dates, thresholds, or new steps, and the minister reiterated that only the central bank can decide such matters.
Future bank licensing in Albania will be conducted by the Bank of Albania alone, with transparency, shareholder and capital checks, and deposit safety assurances likely to be probed early in the file. Applicants should front-load evidence on these points and plan their engagement strictly through the central bank’s channels.