Gabala, Azerbaijan, June 24
Zulfiyya Gurbanova and Emin Aliyev - Trend:
The range of banking services available to Azerbaijan's postal operator Azerpost LLC will be expanded, according to Azerbaijani Central Bank (CBA) Director General Rashad Orujov.
Orujov made the remarks on June 23 at the 5th Azerbaijani-Russian forum for interregional cooperation held in the Azerbaijani city of Gabala.
He added that a lot of issues and problems were revealed following the global financial crisis, and they need to be discussed and explored. Orujov also said that it is needed to assess the banking sector's role in the development of the economy and people's lives, and this question is becoming more and more relevant.
The CBA director general said that currently there are 43 banks in Azerbaijan, and there is access to their 710 branches and offices in all regions of the country.
"The dynamics of expansion of the banks' branch networks is annually growing and we believe that this is very important in terms of increasing the population's access to financial services. Azerbaijan has 152 non-banking credit organizations (NBCO), credit unions and other non-banking financial institutions, which, despite their small size, play an important role taking a specific niche in the market," Orujov added.
He also highlighted the activities of Azerbaijan's national postal operator, which also began providing financial services.
"The government's joint project with the World Bank (WB) has made it possible to successfully integrate Azerpost into the country's financial system. The huge branch network of up to 1,000 branches and offices ensures the presence of a financial institution virtually in every village. The operators are authorized to conduct payment operations, attract deposits, and the list of their services will expand in the future," Orujov added.
Edited by CN