National Bank of Albania constituted in Rome

SEP 02 1925

The National Bank of Albania was formally constituted on 2 September 1925 in Rome, with its head office on the Piazza dell'Esedra near the Bank of Italy. Its 100,000 founders' shares were entirely in Italian hands and it was largely controlled by Credito Italiano. Italian interests held more than half the total capital of Albania's central bank. This is the concrete substance behind the charge that Zog sold Albanian sovereignty: the country's note-issuing bank was an Italian-controlled company domiciled in Rome. Defenders point out Albania had no domestic capital to found one otherwise.