950 thousand "savers" have zero lek in banks, 4.5% of depositors have 58% of total savings

There are about 2.8 million accounts open in second-tier banks, but about a third of them are empty, while 61% are considered small depositors and have savings of up to 2.5 million lek. In contrast, a very small percentage of depositors (4.5%) own more than half of the savings in banks.

At the end of 2024, individuals in the country had a total of 2.79 million bank accounts open, according to data from the Deposit Insurance Agency (ASD), which are insurable. There was a total of 1.27 trillion lek in these bank accounts.

34.1% of these accounts are empty. According to data from the ASD, there are almost 950 thousand depositors, who have a balance from zero to 100 lek. Compared to a year ago, the number of accounts with zero lek has increased by 5.7%.

Another 1.7 million depositors, or 61.4% of the total, had savings in banks ranging from 100 lek to 2.5 million lek, which is the level of deposit insurance coverage. These are called small depositors by the ASD. The number of small depositors increased by 4% compared to the previous year. According to the law, a depositor in each bank is insured at 100%, but in any case not more than 2.5 million lek. The amount of deposits corresponding to these depositors reached the value of 536 billion lek, or 42% of the total insurable deposits.

In contrast, a minority of depositors own the majority of bank savings. According to the ASD, there are 125,875 individual depositors whose savings are greater than 2.5 million lek, an increase of 5.2% compared to 2023. These constitute only 4.5% of the total number of depositors, but they own 58% of the amount deposited in banks. In total, the amount of their deposits reached the value of 739.5 billion lek.

The ASD explains that the total number of depositors is determined by collecting aggregated data reported by each bank, so a person who has deposits in several banks is registered multiple times.

Insurable deposits

According to the ASD, insured deposits of individuals in the banking system on December 31, 2024 reached 1,275.4 billion lek, and constitute the largest share of total insured deposits, specifically 80.2% of them (the annual change rate was +5.6%). The largest share of insured deposits of individuals is occupied by deposits in lek with 48.6%, followed by deposits in euro with 45.8%.

During 2024, the performance of household deposits in lek has been positive almost throughout the period, with a slight decrease in January and August. Monthly rates of change have been relatively low, and the largest increase was recorded in February at 0.9%.

The largest impact on the annual growth of 5.6% in insured deposits of individuals was provided by deposits in lek, which recorded an annual growth of 7.3%. In December 2024, deposits in foreign currency expressed in lek equivalent had a weight of 51.4%, and their annual growth was 3.9%.

During this period, euro deposits expressed in lek equivalent reached 584.6 billion lek, marking an annual increase of 23 billion lek (in percentage +4.1%), while in the original currency they increased by 10.2%. These deposits account for the largest share of individual deposits in foreign currency.

During 2024, the performance of individual deposits in euro has been positive throughout the period, while those expressed in the equivalent value in lek have been in both positive and negative directions, as a result of the performance of the lek exchange rate against the euro. The largest monthly increase was recorded in August with 2.2%, while those expressed in the equivalent value in lek increased by 1.6%.

Individuals' deposits in USD in the original currency, compared to the end of 2023, increased by 4.6%, while expressed in the equivalent value in lek (their weight 3.7%) have marked an annual increase of 4.9%. / MONITOR