Országos Takarék Pénztár (OTP) Bank Albania, a member of the Hungary-based OTP Bank Group, recently borrowed EUR 5 million (USD 6.1 million) from the UK-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Albania in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by upgrading their production facilities for improved quality and safety. The EU is supporting the loan with technical assistance and grant incentives of up to 15 percent of the loan principal for end-borrowers that successfully complete project goals. The head of EBRD operations in Albania, Matteo Colangeli, said that this SME Competitiveness Program will “help Albanian SMEs to introduce EU standards, improving their performance and becoming more competitive, particularly on export markets.”
OTP Bank Group, founded in 1949, has 18.5 million private and corporate clients in nine countries in Central and Eastern Europe. As of the third quarter of 2020, OTP Bank Group reported total assets of HUF 22.7 trillion (USD 77.5 billion), return on equity on adjusted net earnings of 19.7 percent and return on assets of 2.1 percent.
EBRD, founded in 1991, has 69 shareholding countries as of 2020. It planned to invest approximately EUR 8 billion (USD 8.6 billion) over the course of 2020 in support of a “transition to open, market economies, whilst fostering sustainable and inclusive growth” across Central Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa. In Albania, EBRD has made investments totaling approximately EUR 1.4 billion (USD 1.7 billion) in 100 projects.
By Eha Joshi, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
EBRD news release
https://www.ebrd.com/news/2020/ebrd-lends-5-million-to-otp-bank-in-albania.html
EBRD homepage
https://www.ebrd.com
OTP Bank Albania homepage
https://otpbank.al
OTP Bank financials
https://www.otpbank.hu/portal/en/IR/Reports/FinancialHighlights
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