BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 30
By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:
Kapital Bank, one of Azerbaijan’s leading corporate banks, began the year 2019 by taking part in the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) event in London Jan. 16, 2019, at which the world-famous financial Global Finance magazine presented Kapital Bank with the award “Best Trade Finance Providers”.
In October 2019, Global Finance magazine named Kapital Bank “Safest Bank” in Azerbaijan, thereby consolidating its success achieved in 2018 when it received the same award.
Agreements
In September 2019, Kapital Bank signed a memorandum of cooperation with the IBM iX consulting company, planning to reach a completely new qualitative level in relations with its customers.
Kapital Bank Deputy Chairman and IT Director Nahid Zeynalov, IBM iX Practice Leader in Central and Eastern Europe Yevgeny Sokolov and Head of IBM iX Client Experience and Design Practice in the region Ivan Losik told Trend what this partnership consists of, and what they hope it will lead to.
Sokolov noted that the bank has a systematic approach and sees its task not to run after the others, but to become a leader in the field of digital banking. In accordance with the strategic plan adopted at the beginning of the year, the ultimate goal is to become more flexible, fast, technological and multi-channel.
Digitalization
In October 2019, Kapital Bank launched the EVAM Streaming Analytics platform, which analyzes the customer’s profile on the basis of instant data, helping to increase sales, reduce risks and costs. Samir Mammadov, chief marketing officer at Kapital Bank, said that if earlier customers received mass notifications or newsletters, after the introduction of the EVAM platform, customers will receive only the information they need.
Products
In 2019, Kapital Bank became the leader in terms of the number of installment card holders in Azerbaijan. At the end of the year, the total number of BirKart cardholders is almost 65 percent of all cardholders.
According to the information received, the number of BirKart card users exceeds 450,000, having increased by 200,000 customers since the beginning of this year (2.2 times). Based on these figures, it is safe to say that BirKart, involved in retail banking, is the most popular installment card in Azerbaijan, becoming the first of its kind unique card in the local market.
Financial performance
According to reports for the third quarter of 2019, the bank’s profit at the expense of interest increased by 25 percent. The growth of assets amounted to 7.8 percent, capital - 5.4 percent, and deposits - 8.3 percent.
From January through September 2019, Kapital Bank entered the top 3 banks in Azerbaijan in terms of many key financial indicators, such as interest income worth 293.9 million manat ($172.9 million), total capital worth 392.1 million manat ($230.6 million) and cash worth 1.2 billion manat ($745.2 million).
The bank’s loan portfolio for this period amounted to 1.7 billion manat ($1 billion).
Kapital Bank is the assignee of the oldest bank in Azerbaijan and provides services to the population in more than 100 branches and departments. Also, the bank is among three biggest banks in Azerbaijan.
The bank’s shareholders are PASHA Holding (99.87 percent) and individuals (0.13 percent).