Azerbaijan, Baku, 31 March / corr. Trend I. Khalilova/ The Board of Directors of International Finance Corporation (IFC) has approved the mortgage lending credit worth US$15mln for the business bank UniBank.
The credit will be granted within the Housing Finance program for the development of house financing in Azerbaijan. The program Housing Finance includes granting of long-term mortgage lending and provides consultation services. This credit for UniBank is first investments within the program granted for 7 year period.
The investment of IFC will contribute to the development of the first mortgage market in Azerbaijan, rise in the standards of mortgage market in line with the best experience, and rise in documents circulation in mortgage lending as well. The project will enable banks to create the pool of attractive assets for the security purposes, which will provide conditions for the development of second mortgage lending market and potential mechanism of re-financing.
Furthermore, the project will increase the access for the purchase of housing and will also provide finance for the repairs in the private property. The IFC project will allow reducing the cost of short-term and medium-term mortgage credits.
Eldar Qaribov, the chairman of the Supervisory Board of UniBank earlier said that the credit resources of IFC will be granted on commercial terms. At present, Unibank carries out its own mortgage lending program. The mortgage portfolio of the bank makes up AZN37mln. The Bank lends mortgage for 7 to 10 years with an interest of 15-16%. Unibank is the agent of the Azerbaijan mortgage fund through which it granted credits worth AZN4mln.
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