A Survey Of The Accounting Information Systems Used By The Banking Industry In Albania

During the last two decades the banking and financial industry in Albania has undergone a major revolution regarding the products it offers as well as its organization and competitiveness. During the same period there has been an immense development of the information and communication technology in the banking industry and consequently an increase in the use of advanced information systems in the collection and processing of financial information by these institutions. Also, the globalization of the markets has increased the need to process the information faster and more efficiently, not only for a prompt decision making, but also to comply to financial supervision requirements and to better understand the market situation. In this paper we analyze how the information systems used by the banks in Albania impact their activities and daily operations. We use a survey to conduct an analysis of strategy matrix of McFarlan and how the banks of Albania position themselves in this matrix. We find out that all the surveyed banks view their information systems as strategic tools through which they adjust their market positioning to gain strategic advantage and product differentiation. The dependency on the information systems is considerably high and it is expected to increase in the near future as the investments for the systems are also expected to increase.