Azerbaijan, Baku, July 16 /Trend A.Akhundov/
The Azerbaijani AtaBank does not have plans to consolidate with another bank, Deputy Chairman of the Board Museib Aliyev told Trend on Monday.
"The issue of AtaBank consolidation with any other bank is not discussed. It depends on the decision of the shareholders. AtaBank is a normal, developing bank, and there is no need to consolidate," Aliyev said.
The issue of changing the composition of shareholders also isn't discussed, he said.
"The bank has three shareholders today, the largest share of capital is owned by AtaHolding. Today, the situation with the shareholders of the bank is good," Aliyev said.
Chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Elman Rustamov told Trend earlier that the central bank is interested in consolidation of the country's banking system.
"We as a state is interested in it, as the union of a group of relatively weak banks will give the consolidation of capital, the increase in resources, will provide a transition to a qualitatively
different level of customer base, technology used, corporate governance," Rustamov said.
A strategy of consolidation and optimization of the banking sector developed by the CBA involves a reduction in the number of banks in Azerbaijan in the long run from 44 to 20. CBA will begin concrete negotiations on consolidation in the banking sector after the summer.
AtaBank has been successfully operating since 1993. It is one of the largest commercial banks in Azerbaijan. The main shareholder is AtaHolding, which owns 76 percent of its shares.
The official exchange rate on July 16 is 0.7855 AZN/USD.