Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 3
By Huseyn Veliyev - Trend:
Azerbaijani postal operator, Azerpost Company prepared a pilot project on credits allocation, the Minister of Communications and High Technologies Ali Abbasov said Sept.3.
The total cost of the project is 2 million AZN, the minister said.
"At the moment several areas with the greatest demand for loans are identified and there are no return risks, said Abbasov. Funds from internal resources of structural units of the office will be allocated on the lending," he added.
At the initial stage the loans will be given for the development of business and agriculture.
Resolution on the provision of full credit facilities by postal operator will be received in the near future, the minister said.
At present, approximately 1,000 departments of LLC post offices are provided with the possibility of implementation of all banking services (except for the issuance of loans and deposits) based on the license of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
The Central Bank expressed its readiness to support the growth and development of the banking and financial services through the Azerpost LLC branch network.
Currently Azerbaijan post issues debit cards, and with the permission of the Central Bank the postal operator may be able to issue credit cards.
It is not excluded that the Azerpost can begin to micro-credit through the bank without a banking license, which is practiced by a number of CIS countries today.
Azerpost LLC can compete with players of the banking market upon its entry into the banking market of Azerbaijan. Today, some 44 banks operate on the Azerbaijani banking market. The total number of their branches reaches 726, while the number of branches and post offices of Azerpost exceeds 1,600.
The official exchange rate for September, 3 is 0,7844 AZN / USD.