The story
In the early 1990s, Albania reformed its banking system to establish a two-tier banking system. In 1991, Banka Tregtare Shqiptare (BTSH) was established from the sub-division of the activities of the Albanian State Bank, the main activity of which was managing the foreign trade operations of the state-owned entities with former socialist countries. In 1992, Banka Kombëtare e Shqipërisë (BKSH) was created by a second sub-division of the State Bank of Albania. BKSH was set up to manage the domestic trading activity of the State-owned entities. The assets and liabilities from the activities of these two entities were transferred to BKT accounts since it was first established.
Banka Kombëtare Tregtare (BKT) was established in January 1993 by merging BTSH and BKSH. It was subsequently restructured as a joint-stock company in July 1997, with assets reaching ALL 2.7 billion.
From Wikipedia’s article on Banka Kombëtare Tregtare, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5