Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 26 / Trend N. Ismayilova /
The Azerbaijani Central Bank urged the Azerbaijani banks to conservative approach when branching out, Head of the CB department on the supervision of credit institutions, Rashad Orujov, said.
"The Azerbaijani banks grew at such a pace that it was difficult to monitor the financial operations in all their branches. We called banks to conservative approach while opening new branches," Orujov said.
The Central Bank together with the Azerbaijani Bank Training Center is holding training programs for certification of bank branches' managers, Orujov added.
The first phase will cover the major banks, which have the most extensive branch network and managers of these banks' branches will be certified first, Orujov added.
According to Orujov, the courses will begin in late September and the program will run for one and a half year.
"There are 560 bank branches in the country and all will be involved in the certification process. These courses will be obligatory for new managers of branches", Orujov said.
The main objective of strengthening the Central Bank's control over the activities of banks' branches is to improve financial discipline there. Taking into account that the branches do not have separate balance sheets and daily operating indexes are presented to the bank's head office in the online mode, where they compile a consolidated balance sheet, an accountant is not required in the branches. Accordingly, the administrator becomes in charge of all financial transactions of the branch. Regarding this, the Central Bank considers it necessary to conduct their certification to make sure of the quality of managers in the branches of the banking system.
According to the totals of 2008, the main center of opening of branches was Absheron economic region, with 332 branch banks, Aran with 76 branches, Ganja-Gazakh with 57 branches. The smallest number of banks, only 10, operates in Nagorno-Shirvan and Nakhchivan regions.
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