Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 11 / Trend I.Khalilova /
The non-banking credit organization (NBCOs) also have access to the Central Credit Registry (CDC) acting under the Central Bank of Azerbaijan in late 2010 - early 2011, Jala Hajiyeva, the executive director of the Azerbaijani Microfinance Association (AMFA), said.
"The Ministry of Justice has already approved the NBCO's accounting rules in the credit registry, which officially will come into force after their publication in the legislative acts", Hajiyeva said.
She said that the non-bank credit organizations will join the credit registry immediately, since technically they are ready for this.
The law "Non-bank credit organizations" providing access to credit registry was passed by Parliament in late 2009. After the law entered into force (February 2010), non-bank credit organizations began to create an information system to join the credit registry on-line.
She said that the access to central credit registry for NBCOs will be limited at the first phase, as the registry service must first verify the information provided by these credit organizations.
"So, NBCO will be able to use a temporary server within several months while testing data. They will have access to information about the borrowers of only non-bank credit institutions," the AMFA representative said.
Micro-financial organizations reduced the growth rate of credit portfolio by 80-85 percent because NBCOs have no opportunities to check credit history of borrowers since the global crisis. Though NBCO continued to draw additional loan resources during crisis, they placed them slowly. The lending volumes were small because they sent the funds from their own reserves to the lending. The representative of the association considers it important to maintain the quality of the portfolio to give funds from new loans.
As of October 30, 2010, the number of active clients in the microfinance sector of Azerbaijan hits 323.449, and the loan portfolio makes up $504.6 million. During 2010, the portfolio increased by 5-10 percent. It was mainly achieved due to AccessBank.
According to AMFA, the portfolio of microfinance institutions at risk was 3.14 percent as of late October (with delayed payment + 30 days), but compared to September, it reduced as it hit 3.17 percent, and in January 2010 - 3.1 percent.
There is no special risk on micro-lending in the portfolio compared to small and medium enterprises, where the share of overdue loans is kept at 10.42 percent, Hajiyeva said. Such a high level of portfolio at risk was provided by individual banks, where the volume of overdue loans is kept at a high level.
The Central Credit Registry Service (CCR) was established in March 2005. For a single query to the registry on an individual fee are 1.1 manat and a legal person - two manat. The credit register is not pursuing commercial objectives, and tariffs imposed to cover administrative costs.
Norway Registers Develorment acted as a consultant to develop the CCR and RISK Company -performer. Financing of the establishment of a credit registry was performed by the World Bank loan for "Financial Sector Technical Assistance" (FSTA).