2017

30 November 2017

AAB, in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers Albania (PWC) experts, organized a workshop to discuss the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) certification and the application of Common Reporting Standards (“CRS”). The roundtable was attended by 22 representatives of member banks. During the activity , was discussed on:

The importance of applying the FATCA rules and the three-year certification procedures which are carried out for the first time since the law entered into force; and moreover they should be completed by June 30, 2018.
2. The Common Reporting Standards (CRS) and the expected impact on the Financial Institutions.

AAB and its Card Committee organized the workshop entitled “How to Build a Profitable Card Business Portfolio”. The representatives from the companies VISA and MasterCard gave presentations on the topic. This event focused on addressing strategies or techniques for Card Portfolio Profitability Growth; the latest insights and card industry guidance from MasterCard and Visa Card Payments Experts and best practices and success stories throughout the world. The workshop was attended by Bank of Albania representatives, members of AAB Card Committee and banks’ experts.
On June, 21, 2017, AK-Invest with the support of AAB organized a workshop on “The importance of AML compliance program”. The workshop brought insights in: MGI’s Compliance Program Framework, Overview of Compliance Transaction Life-Cycle, Transaction Monitoring, AML Monitoring Reports, AML Checks in Agent Monitoring. Të workshop was attended by Compliance & AML Executives/Officers & Payments Officers from commercial banks, representatives of the Albanian FIU, representatives of Central Bank of Albania, representatives of MoneyGram Partners in Albania, etc.
The seminar brought innovation in Customer Relationship Management approaches using analytics Real-time in areas such as customer value management, customer campaigns, or their experience. It was organized at Rogner Hotel, Tirana, on June 8, 2017 and attended by commercial banks, telecom operators, financial and technological companies, etc. The expert, Mr. Davor Marić, with 15 years of experience in the field of CRM, shared his knowledge on CRM practices through the big data technologies, an innovation that gives companies the edge of the market.
On June 1, was organized the “SWIFT: Customer Security Program (CSP) work session Albania”, which is a program launched by SWIFT Company after the cyber attacks happened in Philippines a year ago. The work session consisted of 2 parts and was attended by CISO – Chief Information Security Officers; IT director/managers; SWIFT main contacts, Ministry of Finance, Bank of Albania representatives and non bank financial institutions. The SWIFT experts provided information about the cyber-crimes that happened and details of the 16 mandatory and 11 optional CSP security controls that financial institutions need to implement in 2017. In this activity the participants reviewed the controls specific to Alliance Access and Entry, discussed the implications of release 7.2 and answer any questions that are still open at this stage also for Lite2 users.

On June 2, was organized the annual meeting of UGM. The meeting focused on: the Customer Security Program (CSP) update; SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (SWIFTgpi); Compliance Portfolio: Daily Validation Report; Payments Data Quality (FATF16, 2nd Funds Transfer Regulation); KYC Registry; Release 7.2 Rollout and Services; latest Board Papers. The activity was attended by member banks and Bank of Albania’s representatives.

On April 04, AAB in collaboration with IFC organised the Roundtable entitled “The Future of Risk Management”. The roundtable was attended by Bank of Albania representatives, CROs and risk staff of member banks, IFC experts, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Switzerland in Albania. “Introducing ICAAP to the Albanian financial market / overview of the strategy”; “Risk management best practice moving forward”; “Moving to better risk governance/determination of risk appetite” were the main topics covered at the meeting.
AAB and IFC, on February 07, co-organized a one-day workshop for banks operating in Albania, aiming to raise the awareness of new bankruptcy law and its procedures. The new Law on Bankruptcy dated 27.10.2016 was adopted by the Albanian Parliament on 27 October 2016.

The purpose of the workshop was to highlight the new law procedures from the banks and legal perspective, also specifying the important role of the insolvency administrator. The training was led by the IFC consultants, Prof. Mariana Semini and Prof. Vangjel Kosta and attended by 42 banks’ employees.