Stress Testing the Albanian Banking Sector

Over the past decade, the Albanian banking sector has undergone a remarkable transformation amid strong macroeconomic performance and sound financial reforms. Nevertheless, pockets of vulnerability remain, including some that were identified during the IMF’s 2014 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP). To assess the resilience of the Albanian banking sector, this paper conducts capital adequacy and liquidity stress testing exercises using supervisory bank-level data. The results indicate banks’ broad resilience to shocks arising from non-performing loans and interest rates. On the other hand, vulnerabilities owing to large-borrower and sovereign exposures are found to be material in some cases. Relatedly, while banks are found to have adequate high-quality liquid assets under liquidity stress scenarios, such resilience hinges importantly on their access to the Bank of Albania’s liquidity facility. Such results call for further strengthening of the macroprudential toolkit and continued efforts to deepen financial markets.