Bank robberies on the rise: Bank Association Responds

According to the Association during 2018, the banking sector in Kosovo has faced an unprecedented number of cases of physical assaults where most of them were robberies committed by dangerous armed criminal groups with long arms.

While material damages were high, the Kosovo Banks Association expresses the greatest concern for the safety of clients and bank staff. The banking sector employs about 3,500 workers and serves thousands of clients every day, providing very important financial services for the Kosovo economy, so it is a top priority for banks to feel comfortable and secure in obtaining services at banks, as well as for bank employees to perform their jobs in a secure” environment, it is said in the communique.

According to the communiqué in some of these attacks, bank employees have been injured and had to accept medical treatment because these mafia groups are usually very dangerous and violent in their attacks.

Moreover, these robberies empower these criminals to use money stolen to illegally buy weapons, drugs and commit many other crimes within Kosovo and the region, resulting in increasingly powerful organised criminal caves, which pose a threat to national security in the country.

The “based on statistics offered by Kosovo Police is evident that other businesses in Kosovo are also facing attacks on regular grounds and are subject to such risks and threats. Therefore, the Association of Banks of Kosovo called on Kosovo security institutions to take urgent and powerful measures against these criminal groups to crush them and secure the” environment, the communiqué said.