American Bank of Albania
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The American Bank of Albania (ABA) was established in 1998 by the Albanian American Enterprise Fund (AAEF) and is currently the third largest bank in Albania according to customer deposits.
[edit] Background
The American Bank of Albania was established by the Albanian American Enterprise Fund (AAEF), a private non-political, non-profit corporation established pursuant to the US Government Act for the support for East European Democracy of 1989. The United States government provided the capital for the AAEF through a USD$30 million grant. The AAEF, which established the American Bank of Albania in 1998, has as a primary goal to promote Albanian private sector development.
The American Bank of Albania (ABA) scope is to offer Albanian and foreign citizens high quality and high security services, to restore the trust of the Albanian citizens in the Banking System after the economic breakdown caused by pyramid schemes and help the modernization of the Banking procedures. The Bank was approved by the Bank of Albania and got its license on August 10, 1998, and began operations on September 24, 1998. Since its inauguration, it has pioneered many traditional and innovative products and has grown to be the third largest bank in Albania among the 17 existing at the moment, according to customer deposits.
On June 14, 2004, ABA's Greek Branch opened its doors in Athens to ensure that members of the Albanian community that live and work in Greece, also benefit from the banks services, offered by personnel that can communicate with them in their own language.
On December 2006, AAEF agreed to sell 80% of the shares to Intesa Sanpaolo Bank. The agreement was finalized on June 29, 2007, and since then ABA is part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group.
