No strategy revision needed, says leading corporate bank of Azerbaijan
Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar.3
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
PASHA Bank OJSC has no plans to revise the development strategy for 2015-2017 in connection with the adjustment of the manat exchange rate, a member of the Board of the bank, Chief Investment Director Taleh Kazimov told Trend Mar.3.
"We do not see a great need to revise the three-year development strategy [it covers 2015-2017]," he said. "Perhaps there will be some adjustments in the bank's budget for 2015, but big changes are not expected."
It is known that on February 21, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan established exchange rate of the manat (AZN) to the US dollar at 1.05 manat per dollar (compared to 0.7844 manat earlier), which corresponds to the cheapening of rate by 33.9 percent.
The official exchange rate on March 3 is 1.0496 AZN / USD.
The financial stability of the bank remained at the same high level as it was before, and capital adequacy of PASHA Bank today exceeds 30 percent [given the regulatory requirement of 12 percent of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan], according to Kazimov.
"First of all, in the current situation we would like to prove ourselves as a financial partner for real or corporate sector of Azerbaijan," said Kazimov.
He said that in this regard the bank has already revised interest rates on loans and deposits in manats and changes in the loan repayment schedule are possible if needed. At the same time, the period of delay in repayment of the loan depends on each client's business, that is, work with each of them is held individually.
"As of today, the bank interest rates remain at a low level compared with the rates on the market," he said. "Customers need financially stable bank in which they would be able to receive their funds whenever they need and be confident in the security of the deposit. Therefore, we are witnessing a considerable flow of funds from both corporate and private clients. Thanks to our financial stability, corporate clients understand that placing funds in accounts at PASHA Bank, they significantly reduce their risks and get a guarantee of safety of funds and the source of constant interest income."
At the same time, Kazimov said that a change of interest rates on loans does not affect existing contracts.
"Currently, we do not consider such a possibility," he said.
To date, the general obligations of PASHA Bank are about 867 million manats, total capital - 333 million manats. The deposits of individuals account for about 32 percent of the deposit portfolio.
The Bank has allocated about half a billion manats on lending to the real sector.
PASHA Bank is a leading corporate bank of Azerbaijan. The bank that was founded in 2007, provides a range of corporate banking services including issuing of loans, operations in the securities market, asset management, and treasury services. PASHA Bank, represented by its head office and 9 business centers, employs 329 people.
PASHA Bank was declared 'The Best Investment Bank of Azerbaijan' by the Europe Banking Awards-2011 and Europe Banking Awards-2012 and 'The Best Private Banking in Azerbaijan' by World Finance in 2013.
Edited by CN
Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanli
