Baku, Azerbaijan, April 4
By Emin Aliyev -Trend:
Small and medium-sized business lending is a significant priority for the Azerbaijani PASHA Bank development strategy, the bank chairman Farid Akhundov said in an interview with the "The World in 2014" annual supplement of The Economist magazine on April 2.
"The first plans for the development of the small and medium-sized business lending were considered in 2011," he said. Then we started to form the customer base. PASHA Bank organized several actions in this direction during the subsequent two years. As a result, the volume of the portfolio of loans issued to small and medium business has begun increasing since 2013.
The company's total loan portfolio as of late February 2014 amounted to 354.75 million manat.
PASHA Bank also opened a small business service center in 2013, he added.
"This center is aimed at small company service with a staff of 10-15 people and an annual turnover of 0.2 million -2 million manat," he said. "This year, we intend to develop a network of such centers because we are sure that the significant share of the bank's loan portfolio will fall to the small and medium-sized business in the future."
The second similar business center opened in Baku in February this year.
PASHA Bank is a leading corporate bank in Azerbaijan. The bank, founded in 2007, renders a wide range of corporate banking services, including loan issuance, transactions on the securities market, asset management and treasury services. The authorized capital of the bank is 228 million manat, while the total capital exceeds 235.2 million manat.
The official exchange rate is 0.7843 AZN/USD on April 4.
Translated by NH
Edited by CN
