Page 39 - Annual Report 2022
P. 39
war of cyber-attacks is happening, with new digital in the Bank but also by investing in the best new
soldiers and weapons. The banking sector is making technologies.
great progress in digitalization and is one of the most
exposed industries, especially in the Albanian market. In the course of controls and mitigations actions,
This imposes the necessity to rapidly develop the we introduced proactively monitoring 24/7 and
Bank’s technology and information security posture investigating suspicious activities and the real-time
by investing in technologies, tools, and people. generated alerts related to potential ransomware
This will ensure the availability, confidentiality, and attacks and other threats; performed different
penetration test activities; restricted or blocked
websites with poor reputations or that were indicated
as compromised; improved strong authentication
methods, increased the restriction of network
access from outside, etc.
We have also worked on increasing staff awareness
and collaboration in order to protect and manage
our clients’ information by building and continuously
enriching a solid structure that follows the regulatory
requirements, international standards, and best
practices of information security.
On legal risk mitigation, there was continued
monitoring of legislative changes in order to ensure
that the Bank conducts its activities in compliance
with the legal norms in force. A special focus has
been on the transparency of banking products and
services, as one of the essential aspects that regulate
the activity of the Bank with its stakeholders and
clients. In this regard, due to changes in the regulatory
framework by the Bank of Albania, all contracts
related to retail and corporate loan products have
been updated. In addition, in light of the changes
in the Bank’s structure, all the Corporate Loan
Contracts and the various Guarantee Agreements
have been formalized.
In terms of the development of the Bank and new
products intended for clients, the legal risk analysis
and the design of the product in accordance with
applicable legislation has been one of the main
activities.
Through the Association of Banks, an active role
has been exercised in discussions regarding the
approval of laws and bylaws that have significantly
affected the Bank’s activity. It is worth emphasizing
the collaboration with state institutions in order to
establish the application of good practices in the
integrity of BKT’s information assets. implementation of applicable legislation.
Even though the Government and Financial sector Throughout this year as well, the Bank has offered
faced significant technological threats, we worked innovative ways of conducting business deployed in
hard to assess cybersecurity risks and to apply line with legal requirements, while also catering to
corresponding controls for mitigating those risks Bank clients’ needs.
by using not only the current technologies enabled
