Baku, Azerbaijan, May 2
By Emin Aliyev - Trend:
One non-bank credit organization can join the executive committee on establishing the first private credit bureau in Azerbaijan, Coordinator of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) project on strengthening the financial infrastructure in Central Asia and Azerbaijan, Teymur Heybatov told Trend on May 1.
"Today we are working with 11 banks," he said. "The last meeting of the executive committee was held on April 22. The issue of new members' joining the committee, namely, one of the country's non-bank credit organizations was discussed."
"The name of a new member of the committee will be announced after the signing of the agreement," he added.
"It is possible that several commercial banks will join the initiative," he added.
"This testifies to the fact that the country's financial sector shows sufficient interest in the project," he added. "Of course, the number of participants is not limited. But as it is known, a technical partner will get a half of the equity in the bureau's capital. The committee would not like to degrade the structure of local shareholders."
A technical partner will get a controlling stake (51 percent of the equity) in the bureau.
Access Bank, AGBank, Azerbaycan Senaye Bankı, Bank Respublika, Demir Bank, Muganbank, PASA Bank, Turan Bank, Yapı Kredit Bank Azerbaijan and UniBank are potential shareholders of the future credit bureau planned to be established in Azerbaijan.
In 2005, the formation of credit histories of debtors started in Azerbaijan after the establishment of the Central Credit Register Service (CCR) under the Central Bank of Azerbaijan. The register covers the whole spectrum of personal data about banks, non-bank credit institutions, debtors, owners of large stock packages of participation in debtors' capital, their credits and pledges on them.
The credit bureau, in turn will be able to collect credit information from other financial institutions such as leasing companies, organizations involved in micro-crediting, non-financial organizations, including communal and telecommunications companies and trading by selling goods on credit.
The objective of ACAFI project is the improvement of the infrastructure of Financial Markets in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and Azerbaijan by creating an effective system of credit information exchange and introduction of training and certification in the field of risk management among employees of the financial institutions.
The project's activities will help financial institutions take quicker and correct credit decisions and thereby increase the availability of financial services to individual consumers as well as small and medium enterprises in the region. This three-year project is being implemented with the cooperation of the Swiss government.
Translated by NH
Edited by CN
