FED Invest

The history of the foundation starts in 1992 as World Bank project worth $20,000 aimed at poverty alleviation in the country. Such project than laid the basis for the foundation, operation and law regulation of the savings and credit associations which operated in the country’s rural areas. The provision of lacking financial services, supporting of private business initiatives and gradual improvement of living standards over years set the stage for a thriving activity of savings and credit associations and increased financial capacities. In 2002 the increased need for a better management and organization of the savings and credit association’s 60 of them founded the Albanian Savings and Credit Union. That was an umbrella institution which supported the creation and supervision of the activity of the SCAs and as well to serve as a financial lever for them. In 2013, ASCU served 97 SCAs and had a portfolio of € 25 million in loans and € 15 million in deposits.

The quantitative and qualitative expansion of the activity of SCAs came with new opportunities for further increase. With the full support of Bank of Albania and in consultation with Rabobank International Advisory Services – RIAS, there were suggestions that the ASCU member SCAs should evolve into a single institution. The new institution that would run on a two-level governance system and a one-level operational administration, would provide for an enhanced institutional efficiency in decision making processes, increased financing capacities, and widening of the range of products and services the new institution would offer. As such in 2015, the General Assemblies of the respective SCAs approved the voluntary merger of 70 SCAs into the existing SCA“FED invest.” On March 2, 2016, Bank of Albania provided the license for the new institution “FED invest."

Its mission is to provide populations living in rural and peri-urban areas of Albania with a broad array of financial services, aiming at financial inclusion increase and overall poverty alleviation.