Azerbaijan, Baku, March.05 / Trend N.Ismayilova /
The minimum reserve requirement on statutory capital of non-bank credit organizations (NBCO) operational in Azerbaijan will be AZN 300,000-350,000, Alim Guliyev, First Deputy Board Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) reported on Friday.
"According to the legal requirements, the CBA has developed rules of licensing of NBCO and submitted them for consideration to the Justice Ministry. The rules specify minimum reserve requirement on statutory capital of credit organizations at AZN 300,000-350,000", Guliyev said.
The initial option (bill under examination at the Parliament) assumed minimum statutory capital of AZN 75,000 for NBCO having the right to receive security deposit for credit issue and the figure of AZN 25,000 for credit organizations having no such right. But following the first reading, these limits were excluded from the document. The Parliament of Azerbaijan passed the Law "On NBCO" last December. The law has already entered into force.
Currently, the minimum statutory capital for credit organizations is AZN 4,000 per organization.
Operational in the country now are 18 NBCO, of which 14 were established by international humanitarian organizations. Today, investors are very eager to establish a credit organization in the country, but they awaited passage of a law, which could have established legal grounds for NBCO operation.
Currently, there are 31 microfinance organizations operational in Azerbaijan, including state non-bank credit organization Agrar-Kredit and microfinance banks. In 2009, the combined assets of non-bank credits organizations increased by 30.9 percent up to AZN 183.8 million.
Total credit investments by the NBCO have reached to AZN 153.4 million, an increase of 28.5 percent.
At present, microfinance organizations operate in 61 regions of the Republic serving more than 160,000 clients.