Azerbaijan, Baku, March 12 / Trend N.Ismayilova /
International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) has applied to the Qatari financial center to open its representative office, IBA Chairman Jahangir Hajiyev said.
"We have filed an application to the Qatari Financial Center. Contrast to the financial center of Dubai [IBA has subsidiary in Dubai] the Qatari one is not an offshore zone and the zone is directly integrated into the Qatari economy," he said. "In the near future we will work on this direction."
According to him, the further opening and transformation of representations in the bank's subsidiaries abroad will depend on the market and its needs, as well as the possible niches that can take a bank in one or another country.
"Since we first Azerbaijani bank that came to financial markets abroad - this is our competitive advantage, which we use, and certainly will try to act and to develop further in this direction," he added.
The minimum requirement for new banks in Qatar is $10 million, though according to the list of banking services in the license, capital starts with $ 250,000. IBA plans to enter in this banking market, presumably, with $10 million.
Before entering the Qatari financial center, IBA ordered a business plan on development if IBA subsidiary's activities in Qatar to the international audit company PricewaterHouseCoopers.
In 2008, IBA opened a representative office in Dubai. Currently, the bank's representations operate in Frankfurt (Germany), London (United Kingdom), Luxembourg, New York. Future plans also include opening IBA representative offices or subsidiaries in Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
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