BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 20. Fitch doesn’t expect any significant impact on the lending dynamics or changes to the sector loan structure as a result of this Basel III implementation in Azerbaijan, Maksim Maliutin, Associate Director, EMEA Bank Ratings, Fitch Ratings, said during a webinar, Trend reports.
“In our view, banks will continue to grow in retail, while on the corporate side, loan book will continue to be dominated by trade and services sector, so it's also a structural feature. Local banks don't lend a lot to oil and gas companies, and they rely heavily on the trade and services sector, so we don't expect significant impact there,” he said.
Maliutin pointed out that a lot of banks are well-positioned to meet the new Basel III requirements, because their capital positions have already been adequate.
“There could be some cases at smaller banks, but if we're talking about large banks in the sector, they're pretty much well-positioned,” he explained.
On 16 December 2025, the Board of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) amended the “Rules on the Calculation of Bank Capital and Its Adequacy.” The changes aligned capital structure, capital adequacy ratios, capital buffers, and several other regulatory requirements with Basel III standards.
According to the CBA, the introduction of new capital buffers will increase banks’ resilience to potential losses, enable more accurate risk assessment, improve capital quality, and create conditions to support sustainable financing of the economy.
Basel III is a framework developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and formally adopted in 2010–2011. It was introduced in response to regulatory weaknesses revealed by the global financial crisis of the late 2000s. The agreement strengthens capital requirements for banks and introduces new liquidity standards, with the overarching goal of improving risk management in banking and enhancing the stability of the financial system as a whole.