Baku, Azerbaijan, June 16
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) expects the consolidation process to continue in the Azerbaijani banking market, Orhan Aytemiz, director of BSTDB general industries, transport and tourism II department, told Trend.
Aytemiz, who is also chairman of the supervisory board of Azerbaijani AccessBank, added that the consolidation and restructuring of the Azerbaijani banking sector is being controlled by Azerbaijan’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority.
“The situation in the global financial market has also affected the Azerbaijani banking market,” he added. “A number of banks have faced liquidity problems. The licenses of 11 banks have been revoked. We think that the consolidation and restructuring process will continue in the Azerbaijani banking sector.”
Aytemiz said external challenges also affected the capitalization of the country's banking sector.
“Some banks faced a shortage of capital and closed,” he said. “The remaining banks must be ready to raise capital at the request of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), otherwise they can leave the market.”
The licenses of 11 banks have been revoked in Azerbaijan since early 2016. For some time, the CBA tried to stimulate the consolidation process in the market, however, this did not give visible results. As a result, the CBA began to revoke the licenses of some banks. The Financial Market Supervisory Authority also said the merger of two small problem banks would give nothing but the creation of one big problem bank, and so, it would be more appropriate to revoke the licenses of those banks and reduce the risks for the entire sector.
Two Azerbaijani banks, AtaBank and Caspian Development Bank merged in early June.
Now, 31 banks, including two state-run ones, operate in Azerbaijan.
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