In the latest survey conducted by the Bank of Albania on “Money Market Issues”, 7 out of 14 respondents (commercial banks), (which possess 59 per cent of the market share), outlined “the excess structural liquidity” as the main barrier to the development of the interbank money market, while 4 out of 14 banks (which have a market share of 30 per cent) highlighted “the credit risk” as the second most important barrier. The tendency to keep excess structural liquidity as a bank policy was pinpointed by 13 out of the 14 interviewed banks, otherwise meaning that banks that share 92 per cent of the market do have a tendency to keep excess structural liquidity. We notice that the reasons and obstacles brought up by banks are mostly subjective, and their prevention depends more or less depend on their policies and behavior. Banks keep excess liquidity because there is no a developed money market where they could invest this liquidity at all times at a fair market price. This market can not be developed on its own! It is banks’ active liquidity management as opposed to a passive one that creates incentives for developing the markets. In this context, I would highly recommend you to implement stricter internal control policies and procedures, so that they can identify opportunity cost and missed profit opportunities. Such a thing will lead to improved efficiency and competitive positions of the bank on the one hand and market development on the other.
The current development of the interbank market in Albania does not fulfil these assumptions yet and therefore, it makes the work of the Bank of Albania difficult in carrying out this essential function. Year 2002 recorded the start of the interbank market, the same year when the indirect instruments were introduced by the Bank of Albania to conduct its monetary operations. The Bank of Albania has attended the developments of the interbank money market in the last five years. During this period the trading volume has been fifteen folded, climbing from a daily average of 130 million lek in 2002 to a daily average of around 2 billion lek in 2007. Also there has been an increase in the maturity of the traded funds, from only trading overnight back in 2002 to trading up to three months in 2007. Also there has been an increase in the maturity of traded funds, from only trading overnight back in 2002 to trading up to three months in 2007. From the beginning of this year, we have been able to publish the fixed interest rate indexes, TRIBOR and TRIBID, which is hoped to promote the development of the interbank money market. However, we have to admit that this development has been a very slow one. During the last five years, the lek liabilities of the banking system have increased by 135 billion lek, which makes the increase in the trading volume of interbank market by a daily average of 1.9 billion lek, only a peanut in a big cake.