Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 24 / Trend corr. I.Khalilova /
Nine Azerbaijani banks, which are potential shareholders of the first private credit bureau in the country, have signed a memorandum of understanding, the Coordinator of IFC project on strengthening of the financial infrastructure in Central Asia and Azerbaijan Teymur Eybatov told Trend on Wednesday.
Access Bank, AGBank, Azerbaycan Senaye Bankı, Bank Respublika, Demir Bank, Muganbank, PASHA Bank, Turan Bank and Yapı Kredit Bank Azerbaijan wished to become the shareholders of the credit bureau.
The chairman of the Executive Committee created by the bureau was elected at the last meeting of potential shareholders. Rauf Akhundov, who is a Deputy Chairman Demir Bank took the position..
"One of the decisions made at the last meeting of the Executive Committee, was to begin preparations for sending RFI (Request for Information) from technical partners on the intention to become a partner in the creation of a private credit bureau" Eybatov.stated.
The international partner will supply software to the bureau. Proceeding from its experience, the International Finance Corporation also proposes to offer a majority stake in a credit bureau to those who can manage it. This will reduce the risks in the work of credit bureau, in particular exclude disputes between banks on certain issues.
"Our task is to prepare for the establishment of the first private credit bureau by coming into force of the law regulating the activities of credit bureaus in Azerbaijan. Therefore, the process is performed simultaneously with the preparation of procedures for harmonizing the draft law on 'Credit bureaus' Eybatov added.
According to him, IFC has prepared comments on the draft law together with the Executive Committee to prepare comments and sent them to the Central Bank.
Forming of borrowers' credit history began in Azerbaijan in 2005 after the establishment of the Central Credit Register (CCR) service at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan. The registry covers the entire range of personal information about banks, non-bank credit institutions, borrowers, owners of large shares in equity of borrowers, loans and mortgage on the loans. The credit bureau, in turn, will be able to collect credit information from other financial institutions such as leasing companies, organizations involved in micro-credit, non-financial organizations, including utilities and telecommunications companies, commercial sites that sell goods on credit, etc.
The ACAFI project aims to improve the infrastructure of financial markets in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and Azerbaijan through the creation of an effective system of credit information sharing and introduction of training and certification in the field of risk management among employees of financial institutions. The project activities will help financial institutions to take more swift and sound credit decisions and thus increase the availability of financial services to individual consumers and small and medium enterprises in the region. This three-year project is being implemented in collaboration with the Government of Switzerland.