BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 26
By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:
The Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers and the Central Bank have developed the comprehensive measures to support individuals, who are not engaged in entrepreneurial activity, and entrepreneurs, Trend reports referring to the Cabinet of Ministers’ action plan.
The Azerbaijani Central Bank intends to take additional comprehensive measures in several spheres to uninterruptedly render financial services to businesses and people during the period of a pandemic and continue lending of the economy, as well as protect the rights of consumers of financial services.
A decrease in economic activity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and sharp fluctuations in world energy markets, a decrease in business and household income and deterioration in solvency affect the financial stability of the credit and banking sector.
As a result, it is necessary to make the temporary regulatory exemptions on mortgage loans for entrepreneurs and individuals operating in the spheres directly affected by the special quarantine regime imposed in connection with coronavirus pandemic.
So, the action plan envisages the restructuring of mortgage loans issued before March 1, 2020 at the expense of the Mortgage and Credit Guarantee Fund, based on the consent of the Fund (by making changes to the relevant regulatory documents of the fund) until September 30, 2020; prevention of deterioration in the quality of loans issued by banks during their restructuring.
An appropriate decision for loans issued at the expense of state funds (Entrepreneurship Development Fund, Agency for Agrarian Credit and Development Agency) is based on the consent of the funds.
When restructuring the loans for entrepreneurs whose quality indicators are satisfactory as of March 1, 2020, it was recommended not to reduce the quality indicators of borrowers until September 30, 2020 regardless of their financial condition.
At the same time, the banks will be recommended not to levy additional fines, penalties and other payments from debtors in case of full or partial delay in loan obligations (main debt and interest payments) and not to provide the credit bureau with the negative information about borrowers with satisfactory credit history as of March 1,2020 who have credit debt due to a pandemic.
In other words, it is recommended for banks not to enter the information into the borrower's credit history in case of delay in loan obligations (main debt or interest), not to charge or levy additional fines, penalties and other payments until September 30, 2020.
The Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers approved the action plan to implement the Azerbaijani president’s order in the direction of reducing the negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and energy volatility of the economy, macroeconomic stability, employment and entrepreneurship.
The action plan envisages the measures to protect employment and income of the population, to render state support to entrepreneurs in various spheres, including the regulation of credit obligations.