Governor Ismaili: The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo is committed to supporting a digital and secure future for financial services

The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo (CBK) is committed to supporting a digital future for financial services with benefits for everyone in the country and the CBK is fully dedicated to supporting digital transformation, placing digitalization at the center of its vision, stated Governor Mr. Ahmet Ismaili.

In his opening remarks at the conference “Navigating the Digital Transformation of the Financial Sector”, Governor Ismaili stated that the CBK is creating a dynamic financial ecosystem that will drive long-term economic growth while prioritizing data protection, cybersecurity, and fraud prevention.

He emphasized that digital transformation is a key objective of CBK’s Strategic Plan, aiming to encourage digital finance with benefits across all sectors and financial inclusion, whereby every individual and business in Kosovo may have easy and secure access to benefiting from digital financial services.

“Over the years, CBK has put in place regulations supporting digitalization, including regulations governing the licensing and supervision of payment service providers, FinTech companies, and ensuring that new payment providers have market access. Furthermore, we have prepared laws and adopted several key regulations that foster development of digital financial services, some of which are directly linked to our integration path and SEPA application”, stated Governor Ismaili.

Additionally, he highlighted that, with the support of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the CBK and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are working together to improve infrastructure, promote open banking initiatives, create regulatory innovation spaces (Innovation Hub), and capacity building and expertise in digital financial services.

In concluding his address, Governor Ismaili announced that the CBK, in cooperation with the Agency for Information Society (AIS), has made significant progress in improving public access to financial services by integrating two key services —Bank Account Registry (RLLB) and the Kosovo Credit Registry (KCR) — into the national platform eKosova which will allow citizens to easily verify their accounts with financial institutions and access their individual credit reports without needing to make physical requests at CBK. Additionally, he also mentioned ongoing developments with state institutions regarding the electronic validation of citizens’ data and addresses for financial accounts, in financial institutions aiming to replace, at the extent possible, the process of physical update.

This event of international character was organized by ProCredit Bank, with opening remarks delivered by the Commissioner for Information and Privacy, Ms. Krenare Sogojeva Dermaku, and Mr. Zdravko Vukić – Deputy Chair of the European Data Protection Board, also Director of the Personal Data Protection Authority of Croatia. During the conference, the Deputy Governor Mr. Dardan Fusha attended the panel, whereby he presented CBK’s activities in this regard, alongside local and international participants, including the Head of the European Union Policy Section in Kosovo, Ms. AnnaCarin Platon