Prishtinë, 17 July, 2019 – Ombudsperson Institution has initiated Ex-officio investigations as per the case No. 450/2018 related to unequal treatment of retirees by Commercial Banks in Kosovo in provision of banking loan services.

Presently, according to information provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the total number of retired persons in the Republic of Kosovo reaches the number of 206.534.

On the other hand, in Kosovo there are 11 licensed Commercial Banks which operate in conformity with the Law No. 04/l-093 on Banks, Microfinance Institutions and non-Bank Financial Institutions as well as with sublegal acts of Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK).

Nevertheless, within the scope of bank services, Commercial Banks failed to enable access to loan services for the category of persons over 65 years of age, precisely for the category of retirees, resulting in this manner with discriminatory and unequal treatment between different categories, based on citizens’ age.

Based on the legal analysis and current situation, the Ombudsperson Institution, through this report has recommended the CBK and Kosovo Banking Association to undertake appropriate actions related to approving reforms on crediting policies in Kosovo Banks, aiming prevention of discrimination against elderly citizens, respectively retired persons using this type of bank services.

On July 2, 2019, the Ombudsperson Institution received a response from the CBK, through which has been informed that the CBK has required from all Commercial banks to review their policies and required engagement in accordance with recommendations provided by the Ombudsperson, which will later be the subject to assessment by the CBK.

Consequently, the Ombudsperson Institution highly evaluates the willingness of CBK for its engagement towards implementation of Ombudsperson’s recommendations and believes that pensioners will not be discriminated but will have equal opportunities and access concerning the benefits from banking services for granting loans.

This Report with Recommendations was delivered to the responsible authorities as well as published on OI official web-page. LINK