At midday on December 3, 2025, the Bank of Albania decided to grant preliminary approval for the licensing of a new bank called JET Bank. If it receives final approval from the Supervisory Council of the Bank of Albania to operate banking and financial activities, it will be the first digital bank in Albania.
The Bank of Albania states in its announcement that this bank, “fully digital, combines advanced technology with a simple, secure, and customer-focused model.”
But if the enticing buzzwords of the day, such as “technology” or “digital,” are stripped away, Albanians will see a long list of risks, gaps, and questions that at this stage no one seems to be asking.
In practice, this will be a bank that no one sees, no one touches, and for which no one bears physical responsibility. Almost the same as playing in the cryptocurrency market, except that from JET Bank no one expects profits like those from Bitcoin, etc.
Concerns range from security to operations and money laundering. If traditional banks, with branches, staff, and physically protected servers, have been hit by cyberattacks, what could happen to a bank that exists only on servers, without real documents? The idea of an entire bank dependent on cloud servers and applications may seem modern, but in reality the risks are colossal for citizens’ data and money.
As for money laundering, a bank with no physical contact and identity verification only online is a dream for anyone seeking to circulate dirty money with great ease. Video verification of clients can be easily manipulated, monitoring systems can be bypassed as proven in numerous cases of online system security breaches, algorithms can be tampered with so as not to trigger alarms, while it remains unclear what the real expertise is of the operator who will manage these systems.
Operational risk is another ticking time bomb. In EU countries, digital banks are licensed only after passing heavy stress tests, independent technological audits, and top-class security certifications. But even in Europe and other countries around the world, digital banks have begun to explode exactly like time bombs.
To understand what a digital bank is and its risks, Zoom.al presents a list of examples from EU countries, the USA, and various parts of the world, where these banks have failed—and where failure occurred within just a few hours, not over years.
1. Germany — The digital bank “N26” was put under investigation, sanctioned, and restricted by the German regulator BaFin, which imposed punitive measures, limits on the number of new customers, and fines. “N26” showed massive problems with customer verification, money laundering, misuse of accounts by criminals, and demonstrated insufficient IT infrastructure. Germany considers it a reference case for the risk of digital banks.
2. United Kingdom — Mass closures of digital “e-money” banks. The British regulator FCA has closed or suspended dozens of such banks:
- Wirecard UK (1991 – global collapse in 2020) — millions of customers were left without access to their money for several days.
- IvyPay, U Account, Pockit (periodic suspensions for AML violations).
- Monzo and Revolut were investigated for money laundering and temporarily banned from onboarding certain customers.
Although they did not go bankrupt, these cases show the high systemic risk of digital models.
3. USA — Failures and closures of “neobanks.”
- Beam Financial — closed by the FDIC after allegations of fraud and blocking of client funds.
- Simple Bank — funded by BBVA, closed because the model was economically unsustainable.
- Azlo Bank — closed by BBVA due to continuous losses.
4. Brazil — Neon Bank was temporarily closed by the regulator. In 2018, the Brazilian regulator Banco Central suspended Neon for financial and technological irregularities, freezing its activity. The main problem was the lack of strong control systems and uncertain capital.
5. Mexico — Klar Bank and Albo were investigated; one was closed.
- Klar was investigated for suspicious transactions.
- Albo was forced to close for several months due to serious AML violations.
6. Lithuania & Latvia — Scandals with digital banks linked to offshore groups. The Baltics became a haven for digital banks with unidentified owners.
- Finnapay, SatchelPay, Paytah were involved in investigations, suspensions, or license losses. The main issues were money-laundering schemes and hidden, suspicious ownership.
7. Iceland — The digital Glacier Bank collapsed before opening. The startup failed due to lack of real capital, failure to meet regulatory criteria, and technological risks uncovered during audits.
8. Sweden — JAK Medlemsbank was forced to withdraw from the digital model after finding profitability problems, high technological costs, and high operational risk.
9. Netherlands — “Bunq” faced a serious crisis with the regulator. It clashed with the central bank over weak AML, lack of controls, and automatic deletion of customer verifications. In 2020, the regulator demanded deep changes or its closure.
The most severe cases of total failure of digital banks include Germany and the United States of America.
Wirecard in Germany suffered a global collapse of the digital system. It turned out to be a fraud against clients worth €1.9 billion. The digital bank was 100% blocked, and hundreds of thousands of customers were left without access to their money. This is the most famous case of failure of a “digital banking ecosystem.”
Fidor Bank, also in Germany, was closed. It was acquired by a French company but later shut down because the digital model did not generate profit and operational risks were too high.
Simple Bank in the USA was closed in 2021 after the digital model proved unsustainable, with excessively high technological costs, lack of profit, and customer-verification problems.
All these examples have shown real risks: insecurity, pyramid-like schemes, lack of transparency, lack of information about who the real owners are, who the investors are, or what the capital actually is.
In many countries there have been cases where digital banks were used as platforms for dubious foundations, unclear private funds, and companies with accounts in tax havens.
Albania is thus opening Pandora’s Box with the licensing of JET Bank. In a country where a group of Iranian hackers managed to extract all state secrets, seize all data, and even penetrate the banking systems of some second-tier banks, a digital bank is an alarm bell for citizens to understand that this could be Albania’s “digital Sude.”
The consumer is the first to be at risk, both from losing money and from daily operations. If a client’s account is blocked, there is no one to turn to, no counter to visit. If a business has problems with an account or a payment, no one knows how many days it will have to wait to resolve the issue.
The Bank of Albania says that “its mission (JET Bank) is to introduce a new financial service model, different from traditional banking models.” But it does not clarify who requested this bank, whether there is an analysis showing the necessity of such an entity, and whether there is a lack of digital services in existing banks. Currently, existing banks already offer applications, 24/7 transfers, online accounts, QR payments, electronic banking, etc.
The Bank of Albania has clarified to Zoom.al that “the proposed bank ‘Jet Bank’ will be 100% owned by the company ‘Jet Holdings B.V.’, registered in the Netherlands, which is owned by a group of international investors with extensive experience in technology and fintech, led by Mr. Idan Avishai, an Israeli-British investor with many years of experience in finance.” But to learn who these investors are and who the ultimate beneficial owners are, Zoom.al will publish a series of articles.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Albania must clarify whether the licensing of “JET Bank” is a real necessity or an alibi to introduce a new actor with other purposes into the Albanian market. Moreover, “JET Bank” turns out to be an entirely Albanian fabrication, as it does not exist in any other country in the world, has never operated before, and its entry into Albania appears to be a pure experiment, with many risks. / Written by Zoom.al
