Tirana Bank chooses Backbase to power digital banking transformation

By Gloria Methri

Tirana Bank has selected the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform to drive a comprehensive digital transformation and enhance banking experiences for both new and existing customers.

This strategic partnership marks the bank’s largest technology investment to date, surpassing previous core banking upgrades, and underscores its ambition to emerge as a regional leader in digital banking.

Backed by Albania’s largest business conglomerate, BALFIN Group, Tirana Bank is eyeing significant expansion, with plans to triple its digital customer base over the coming years.

Jouk Pleiter, CEO and founder at Backbase, said, “Tirana Bank’s vision for digital transformation perfectly aligns with our mission to help banks re-architect around their customers and drastically improve their operating models utilising our Engagement Banking Platform. This partnership showcases the growing demand for a sophisticated all-in-one banking platform. It reinforces our position as the partner of choice for forward-thinking financial institutions in the region and beyond.”

The five-year strategic partnership will initially focus on revolutionising Tirana Bank’s retail banking services through:

• A comprehensive suite of digital servicing capabilities, including web and mobile banking applications
• Digital lending capabilities for credit cards and consumer loans
• Planned future expansion of these capabilities to business banking customers.

The implementation leverages Backbase’s cloud-native platform, providing an evergreen service model that maintains high security, regulatory and compliance standards. This allows Tirana Bank to scale operations rapidly, deliver personalised customer experiences, and independently innovate new features. Moving from an in-house digital stack to Backbase’s best-in-class platform infrastructure positions Tirana Bank to capitalise on continuous innovation through rapid release cycles.

Dritan Mustafa, CEO at Tirana Bank, said, “We are embarking on an ambitious growth journey to triple our digital customer base, and Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform gives us the technological foundation and flexibility we need to scale rapidly while delivering the innovative, customer-centric banking experiences that will drive our expansion. This represents more than a technology upgrade – it’s about fundamentally transforming banking in Albania and setting new standards for the region.”

The implementation, led by Backbase’s delivery partner, Endava, gives Tirana Bank the unique ability to go to market faster and build on top of the platform through Endava’s AI expertise and innovative capabilities.

John Cotterell, CEO of Endava, said, “AI is transforming financial services, enabling banks to deliver hyper-personalised experiences and drive operational efficiency like never before. By combining our deep engineering expertise with Backbase’s cutting-edge technology, we are equipping Tirana Bank with the tools to meet evolving customer expectations while strengthening resilience through progressive platform modernisation.”