iute Albania, part of Balkan Payment Forum Tirana 2026

On May 14, 2026, at the premises of Hotel Rogner in Tirana, the Balkan Payment Forum by Pro Money was held: an event dedicated to the development of digital payments in the region and beyond. With the participation of the Minister of Economy and Innovation, senior representatives of the Bank of Albania, international experts and senior executives from banks, regulatory institutions, fintech, payment companies and financial institutions from nearly 30 different countries, the BPF resulted in a very successful meeting for the digital finance industry in Albania and neighboring countries.

There is a reason why the founder and CEO of Pro Money, Karolina Aleksandrova, chose the Balkans and Tirana to hold the next event on the fintech world: in Albania there are excellent developments in the digital finance industry and iute is a good example, as part of the iute Group, a digital banking group that offers its services to thousands of citizens in Southeast Europe.

Representing iute Albania at the Balkan Payment Forum was Ms. Stela Shkodrani, in the panel titled “What’s up in payments?”, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer for iutePay, where she shared her valuable experience in #fintech and gave her opinion on some key points of the industry’s development. During the panel, she emphasized that the future of payments in the Western Balkans will be shaped by speed, simplicity, interoperability and customer trust. According to her, consumers today expect payments to be as instant and intuitive as sending a message, so the financial ecosystem must evolve in line with these expectations.

She also underlined that instant payments are no longer just a technological ambition, but are becoming a change in consumer behavior. According to her, the real challenge lies in creating solutions that customers naturally choose in their daily lives, while ensuring strong interoperability between fintechs, banks, merchants and the entire financial infrastructure. “At iute, we believe we are playing a key role in accelerating this transformation, by continuously focusing on instant payment services, innovation led by customer behavior and expanding payment acceptance by merchants. Our goal is not just to offer another payment method, but to become customers’ first choice for instant payments — a simple, reliable and always available solution when they need it.” Our vision is clear: when people think of an instant and reliable payment or financial service, we want iute to be the first name that comes to mind”, – said Ms. Stela Shkodrani.