market functioning and regulation and believing that the market and the right are dynamic, the bank of albania has supplied the banking market and the banking right with a new instrument – the repurchase agreement. by means of the law on repurchase agreement and the master contract, the bank of albania has initiated a process which needs to be further developed by the specialists of the area. personally and institutionally, we are expecting these efforts to be concluded with the execution of the first transactions of this kind. it is for this purpose that i invite all the participants in this workshop, which for the first time has brought together judges, prosecutors and lawyers from the banking market, to be active and complement one another. with the conviction that our initiative will be followed by other similar activities in the future, i wish you good proceedings. thank you for your attention.

specialised in one or some lending activities ( financial leasing, credits, micro credit, factoring, etc. ). 3. savings and loan associations - ( 16 ) which collect deposits from their members and supply credits only to the members of the association. 1 / 6 bis - central bankers'speeches these financial entities ( banks and non - banks ) have continuously supported the economy of albania and households through lending activity. currently, the entire granted credit portfolio is assessed at all 805 billion. lending is the main activity carried out by non - bank financial institutions. the latter through this activity help a specific category of consumers and small enterprises, who do not manage to access the banking system. currently, 26 non - bank financial institutions operate in albania carrying out the lending activity, though they account for only 6 % of the system's credit portfolio, totalling all 53. 6 billion. the practice of selling and purchasing non - performing loans appeared in the albanian financial market, after the global financial crisis of 2008 - 2010. in this period, some of credits granted by banks over the years were not repaid by citizens. in 2015, these credits exceeded 25 % of total credits, directly affecting the soundness and safety of banks and turning into a serious threat to citizens'savings. the ability of banking sector to support the economy with new credits reduces significantly due to the overloading of balance sheets with non - performing loans. against this backdrop, the albanian government and the bank of albania adopted " the national plan on the reduction of non - performing loans " in september 2015. among other things, the plan charged the bank of albania with the task of regulating and licensing entities engaged in the purchase of non - performing loans. this practice, recognized internationally, is strongly recommended by the experts of the imf and the world bank. in that period, some financial institutions, in addition to lending for which they were licensed by the bank of albania, had also purchased non - performing loan portfolios from banks. this activity is based on the provisions laid down in the civil code on the transfer of credit ( articles 499 – 507 and 705, respectively ). pursuant to the amendments taking place in march 2016, credit purchase is considered a form of lending. through licensing, credit purchase and sale, based on the aforementioned articles of the civil code, is regulated and controlled by the bank of albania, being a subject to all supervisory obligations, including : reporting to the credit registry, providing periodic reports, risk management through