Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 5 / Trend , I.Khalilova/
The
German-Azerbaijani Fund (GAF) does not expect new loans and will continue
funding of banks through earnings, i.e., revolving accounts, in 2009, GAF
technical manager Andreas Franke said on Feb. 5.
"The global financial crisis as a whole has not led to changes in the GAF
activities. Only because of reduction in total lending in the banking system of
Azerbaijan, GAF turnover has been declining since mid-2008," said Franke.
According to Franke, banks refused to invest in the German-Azerbaijani Fund. Therefore,
GAF has to provide financing through revolving fund. As a result, GAF urges
banks not to reduce the content of an account which received a regular GAF loan
to below 85 percent. This account must be replenished through bank's own funds.
Other
international organizations' loan resources issued to banks may be distributed
through the GAF. However, this mechanism is currently not yet developed, so GAF's
capacity is limited to loans of the German Development Bank KfW and the EBRD.
GAF started financing through a KfW loan in 2001. German bank allotted 8.7
million euros. Utilization of the funds and EBRD loan has been completed and funding of local banks
is carried out through revolving account. EBRD joined financing banks through
GAF as part of Azerbaijan Multi Bank Framework Facility Project for micro- and
small-sized enterprises (AMBF-MSE) in 2006.
GAF current portfolio is 76 million euro under 15,350 loans. A total of 4,830
loans totaling 11.5 million euro were issued last year.
Agreement to establish GAF was signed in 1999. GAF started issuing loans in
March 2001. GAF partners are Bank of Baku and UniBank (from March 2001),
Parabank and Bank Respublika (from January 2003), Azerdemiryolbank and AGbank
(from September 2004), Rabita Bank and Mugan Bank (from December 2006), and Nikoil
Bank (from February 2007).
On Feb. 5, the official exchange rate is 0.808 manat to $1.
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