Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 4
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
Almost half of Azerbaijani banks have foreign capital, according to a report on the country’s banking sector disseminated by Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA).
In total, the country has 15 banks with foreign capital, in six of which the share of foreign shareholders exceeds 50 percent of the authorized capital. There are two branches of foreign banks (Bank Melli Iran and National Bank of Pakistan) in Azerbaijan.
In total, according to FIMSA, 32 banks operated in the country in late 2016, including two state-owned ones. During the period, 569 branches and 131 departments of banks operated in Azerbaijan, as compared to 41 banks with 750 branches and 164 departments in late 2015. Meanwhile, there were 21 banks with foreign capital in the country in 2015.
The report says that 16,947 people worked in Azerbaijan’s banking sector in late 2016, while the number of people working in the banking sector was 17,008 in November 2016, 17,030 – in October, 17,490 – in September. The number of employees of the banking sector decreased by 3.1 percent during the 4Q2016.
In 2015, two banks – Evrobank and Azerbaijan Credit Bank were closed down in the country, but in early 2016, the licenses of Bank of Azerbaijan, Ganjabank, United Credit Bank, NBCBank, Atrabank, Caucasus Development Bank and Texnika Bank were also revoked in the country. Moreover, in mid-2016, the licenses of Dekabank, Parabank, Kredobank, Zaminbank and Bank Standard were cancelled.
During the period, 144 non-bank credit organizations operated in Azerbaijan, including 97 credit unions. Nine non-bank credit organizations had foreign capital.