Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec 1 /Trend N.Ismayilov/
Azerbaijan's strategic currency reserves have reached $41.5 billion as of November 1, 2011, Emin Huseynov, Director General of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), Director of the Center for Research and Development said at the Fourth Baku International Banking Conference of the CIS on Thursday.
"This volume is sufficient to finance imports of goods and services for approximately three years," Huseynov said.
According to Huseynov, the growth in deposits volumes in Azerbaijani banks amounted to 21 percent and the loan portfolio - amounted to 19 percent.
The country's banking system has an adequate supply of liquidity. The share of liquid assets in total assets is 18 percent. Capital adequacy is 16 percent and the share of overdue loans in total loan portfolio is 6.3 percent.
"Providing financial stability of Azerbaijan includes modification of regulatory measures and bank supervisory based on Basel 3 standards, improvement of the quality of bank capital and assets, limiting the level of risk, improving the quality of accounting and reporting," Huseynov said.
According to Huseynov, the degree of stability of the financial intermediation depends on the general state of the country's macroeconomic development, and therefore the regulation of the banking sector has a special significance. "Stand up issues of consolidation and restructuring of banks, optimizing the number of banks in order to create a more healthy banks, development financial markets, infrastructure and expansion of services," Huseynov said.
The main task for the banks is to finance the modernization of the economy, for which the banks themselves have to undergo modernization, to increase sufficient assets, improve corporate governance, Huseynov said.
There are 44 banks in Azerbaijan.