The use of bank payment channels by Albanians increased further in the first half of this year.

According to the information from the Bank of Albania, for the first six months of 2024, individuals and businesses have made about 22.5 million payments via banking, an increase of 20.3% compared to the same period a year ago.

Meanwhile, the total value of transactions reached Lek 3.1 trillion, an increase of 7% in the first six months of 2023. The smaller increase in the value of payments compared to the increase in the number of transactions is also partially related to the strengthening of Lek in the exchange rate, which has shrunk the statistical value of transfers made in foreign currency.

In terms of several actions, the main weight in the banking actions of Albanians continues to be card payments, with about 64% of the total. Card transactions are still dominated by cash withdrawals from ATMs, but card payments at POS terminals have been growing rapidly in recent years.

In the first six months of the year, a total of about 8.85 million card payments were registered at electronic sales terminals. The number of card payments has increased by 36% compared to the first six months of last year.

According to data from the Bank of Albania, in mid-2024 the number of active bank cards reached 1.48 million, an increase of almost 6% compared to the previous year.

The second largest group within bank payments is customer-initiated credit transfers. These include payments initiated by customers at bank branches or through remote banking channels, mainly Internet banking. This year, the dominance of bank transfers is being further emphasized, they are being dominated by actions in electronic channels.

About 59% of the total number of these transfers were made in non-paper form, through electronic channels.

According to the most recent estimates of the Bank of Albania, the number of adults who own a bank account has reached 66% of the total. This shows that the use of banking services has marked a significant increase in recent years.

The data from the Bank of Albania show that the total number of bank accounts at the beginning of this year was about 3.24 million, with an increase of 4.2% compared to the previous year.