Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 31 / Trend I. Khalilova /
The executive committee of the first private credit bureau to be created in Azerbaijan has decided to send a request under the Request for Information (RFI) Act for information from potential technical partners willing to participate in the bureau, IFC project coordinator of the financial infrastructure in Central Asia and Azerbaijan Teymur Eybatov told Trend on Tuesday.
This issue was discussed at the last meeting of the committee today represented by potential shareholders of the credit bureau, including Access Bank, AGBank, Azerbaycan Senaye Bankı, Bank Respublika, Demir Bank, Muganbank, PASA Bank, Turan Bank and Yapı Kredit Bank Azerbaijan. They signed a memorandum of understanding.
"The RFI will be sent to international companies for them to send their proposals," he said. "The main task is to specify the number of applicants who would like to be partners of a private credit bureau."
He added that there are about 10 of these technical partners in the world, mainly from Europe and the U.S.
This preparatory work is being carried out to create a shortlist based on a list of potential candidates for participation in the tender for choosing a technical partner after the law on the private credit bureau is adopted. This process takes an average of 12 to 18 months.
He said that the main requirement for applicants is similar experience in the credit bureaux created in countries with the same conditions of economic development and population density as in Azerbaijan.
Representatives of the executive committee may be sent to other countries to become familiar with their credit bureau's activity.
The international partner will supply software to the bureau. Proceeding from its experience, the International Finance Corporation also proposes to offer a majority stake to those who manage it. This will reduce the risks in the work of the credit bureau and in particular exclude disputes between banks on certain issues.
"Our task is to prepare for the establishment of the first private credit bureau by coming into force of the law regulating the activities of credit bureaux in Azerbaijan. Therefore, the process is performed simultaneously with the preparation of procedures for harmonising the draft law on 'Credit bureaus' Eybatov added.
Formination of borrowers' credit history began in Azerbaijan in 2005 after the establishment of the Central Credit Register (CCR) service at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan. The registry covers the entire range of personal information about banks, non-bank credit institutions, borrowers, owners of large shares in equity of borrowers, loans and mortgages on the loans. The bureau, in turn will be able to collect credit information from other financial institutions such as leasing companies, organisations involved in micro-credit, non-financial organisations, including utilities and telecommunications companies and commercial sites that sell goods on credit.
The ACAFI project aims to improve the infrastructure of financial markets in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and Azerbaijan through the creation of an effective system of credit information sharing and introduction of training and certification in the field of risk management among employees of financial institutions. The project activities will help financial institutions to take more swift and sound credit decisions and thus increase the availability of financial services to individual consumers and small and medium enterprises in the region.
This three-year project is being implemented in collaboration with the Swiss government.
