Azerbaijan, Baku, April 30 / Trend A. Akhundov /
The expected growth of micro and retail lending market in Azerbaijan will increase the demand for the services of credit bureaus, representative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Azerbaijan Aliya Asimova said at the Credit Bureau conference in Baku today.
The conference was organised within the IFC project to strengthen the financial infrastructure in Central Asia and Azerbaijan (ACAFI).
"International experience shows that commercial credit bureaus have the opportunity to meet the growing needs of the market," she said.
She said that while offering new services, the improved and effective credit data exchange system will help the Azerbaijani financial institutions to increase opportunities for reaching out for the funds of small and micro enterprises and thereby support the development of the private sector.
"The Azerbaijani Central Bank (CBA) and the IFC have recently been working on modules to upgrade the credit bureau's activity," she said. "Ultimately, this work resulted in a single project. More than 10 banks have joined their efforts in this project."
Rauf Ahundov, chairman of the executive committee for the establishment of a credit bureau operating within the project, said that excessive lending observed today increases the number of borrowers with a negative credit history.
"Our goal is to help banks to better manage their risks, as well as help in creating a culture of loan payment in the country," Akhundov said.
Access Bank, AGBank, Azerbaycan Senaye Bankı, Bank Respublika, Demir Bank, Muganbank, PASA Bank, Turan Bank, Yapı Kredit Bank Azerbaijan and UniBank are potential shareholders of the future credit bureau planned to be established in Azerbaijan.
In 2005, formation of credit histories of debtors started in Azerbaijan after the establishment of the Central Credit Register Service (CCR) under the Central Bank of Azerbaijan. The register covers the whole spectrum of personal data about banks, non-bank credit institutions, debtors, owners of large stock packages of participation in debtors' capital, their credits and pledges on them. The credit bureau, in turn will be able to collect credit information from other financial institutions such as leasing companies, organisations involved in micro-crediting, non-financial organisations, including communal and telecommunications companies and trading by selling goods on credit.
The objective of ACAFI project is the improvement of the infrastructure of Financial Markets in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and Azerbaijan by creating an effective system of credit information exchange and introduction of training and certification in the field of risk management among employees of financial institutions.
The project activities will help financial institutions take quicker and correct credit decisions and thereby increase the availability of financial services to individual consumers as well as small and medium enterprises in the region. This three-year project is being implemented with the cooperation of the Government of Switzerland.