Baku, Azerbaijan, March 6
By Emin Aliyev - Trend:
AccessBank is not considering plans to join the Azerbaijan Mortgage Fund (AMF) under the Central Bank, AccessBank chairman of board Michael Hoffmann told Trend on March 6.
"The bank intends to gradually develop mortgage lending at its own expense," he said.
"This is our new direction, launched recently," he said. "This is a purely commercial product offered by the bank. And today it is too early to talk about this issue [about joining the AMF]."
As of 2013, the bank's mortgage portfolio volume totaled $ 22 million, while the number of customers exceeded 600 people.
"We see that there is a demand for mortgage loans," he said. "The market needs funding. Moreover, long-term resources are required for such lending. Our bank has such resources."
At present, some 31 banks are the authorized banks of the Mortgage Fund.
Mortgage loans worth 533.09 million manat have been issued since launching financing through the AMF, including 74.77 million manat - in 2012, 95.64 million manat - in 2011, 97.08 million manat - in 2010, 76.9 million manat - in 2009, 70.2 million manat - in 2007 and 5.6 million manat - in 2006.
AccessBank was founded in 2002 by BSTDB, EBRD, IFC, KfW, the German consulting company LFS Financial Systems (LFS) and Access Holding.
The bank concentrates on lending to micro and SME businesses. It has a wide branch network through Azerbaijan and employs 1,859 staff. AccessBank is rated BB+ by Fitch Ratings, the highest rating of any bank in Azerbaijan.
Translated by NH
Edited by CN
