Azerbaijan, Baku, July 4 /Trend A.Hasanov/
Azerbaijani banks pay significant attention to their retail business due to the high potential of the market segment, Azerbaijan Bank Training Center Director Javanshir Abdullayev told Trend.
He noted that if the banks had fought for the good investors before them today they fight for the diligent borrowers, and banks are trying to develop new and attractive products to potential customers.
"Despite the intense competition in this area, the sector is fraught with great risks in connection with the repayment of loans, so banks are trying to use sophisticated mechanisms for evaluation of potential borrowers," Abdullayev said.
He noted that after the global financial crisis, banks have begun to pay great attention to risk management and lead risk-oriented policy, so there is a struggle for good borrowers in the first place.
The credit portfolio of banks amounted to 10.6 billion manat in January-May 2012, increasing by 21.3 percent during the year. The share of overdue loans amounted to 720.1 million manat (6.8 percent of the total loan portfolio) as of June 1, 2012 compared to 551.8 million manat (6.3 percent) a year earlier.
There are 44 banks operating in Azerbaijan.
The official exchange rate on July 4 is 0.7856 AZN/USD