Weekly actual topics in Azerbaijan (Aug. 22-26)

Currency exchange in Azerbaijan: things you need to know

The problem with currency exchange on weekends has recently become more relevant in Azerbaijan. The issue has become even more relevant amid an increasing flow of tourists into the country.

Currently, 7 out of 33 banks in the country work on the weekends, the branches of the two banks work around the clock.

Some banks, for example, Xalq Bank and Bank of Baku have a wide network of ATMs, which operate around the clock, but not all of them are cashing foreign currency. Moreover, currency can be exchanged in all big shopping malls and hotels, as well as in the country's airports.

Below is a list of banks working on weekends:

Although today not all banks work on weekends in Azerbaijan, which is normal, but their number is constantly growing.

While commenting on the issue, Rufat Abbasov, assistant chairman of the Board of Directors of Azerbaijan’s Financial Market Supervisory Body, told Trend that the body can’t force banks to work on weekends, but in case of great demand for banking services on Sundays or in the evenings on weekdays, the banks can change working hours in their branches themselves.

“Banks are commercial organizations, and if it was profitable for them to work on weekends or in the evening, they respectively would take the appropriate measures,” said Abbasov. “Since it rests on additional expenses, banks prefer to operate on the basis of their business interests.”

However, even with employees working at weekends and on holidays of bank affiliates, recently, residents of the country are facing the shortage of foreign currency.

The Supervisory Body confirmed the fact that currently, demand exceeds supply on currency market.

“The Supervisory Body closely monitors the situation on the market, but our powers only include the control that when establishing the rate, bank margin should not go beyond the corridor of 4 percent [while purchasing and selling currency],” said the Supervisory Body. “We cannot also tell banks to carry out foreign exchange operations or not.”

It is necessary to take into account another important point – banks earn 4 percent from selling currency. Under the conditions of decline in crediting volumes, to keep this method of earnings is even more important.

Therefore, the restriction on foreign exchange transactions can only be explained by the insufficient amount of dollars at the banks, despite the fact that they buy at least $100 million weekly from the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan. An average of about $3 - $3.5 million falls on each bank in Azerbaijan.

The banks’ refusal to sell foreign currency can be explained by the need to maintain their own international commitments and obligations to depositors, considering that over 80 percent of the liabilities are concentrated in foreign currency.

In other words, the banks have a lot of foreign exchange costs, so they aren’t always able to sell foreign currency to clients.

Meanwhile, a trend of inflow of funds into Azerbaijan’s banking system in the form of deposits has been recently observed as well.

As of early July 2016, the depository base of Azerbaijani banks amounted to almost 23.4 billion manats, which is 1.3 percent more than in May and 28.6 percent more than in the same period last year, according to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.

In particular, as of June 2016, the deposits of population increased by 249.6 million manats, including deposits in foreign currency - by 180.2 million manats.

Banks in Azerbaijan talk on restricted USD sales

The US Dollar sale restriction by Azerbaijani banks is an inevitable step aimed at providing everyone with foreign currency, president of the Azerbaijan Banks Association (ABA), chairman of the Supervisory Board of the country’s Rabitabank Zakir Nuriyev said.

Many banks have recently restricted the sale of foreign currency due to the ongoing cheapening of the Azerbaijani manat. However, some banks have set limits or completely suspended the sale of foreign currency.

The head of the ABA said that banks buy foreign currency at auctions organized by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the country’s State Oil Fund (SOFAZ). However, demand at these auctions exceeds supply a lot, and banks cannot buy as much foreign currency as they need.

During August 2016, SOFAZ sold $344.5 million to banks. Up to $50 million is put up for sale at each auction. The auction takes place twice a week, and nearly 25-28 banks take part in it.

“The problem is that banks don’t have enough foreign currency,” said Nuriyev. “If they had enough dollars, surely they would sell them to their customers. Currency exchange is a non-credit income of banks. Naturally, the banks wouldn’t have refused from profits if they had had such an opportunity.”

At the same time, the head of the association spoke about the increase of commission fee by banks for cashing out the US dollars when using manat cards. Nuriyev considers the move logical and necessary to prevent speculations.

“Some people, who have manat cards, cash out their money in US dollars,” Nuriyev said. “Profiteers, who have multiple cards of different banks, often act like that. It is difficult to control this process, therefore, to reduce the people's interest for such activities and to prevent speculations, banks have decided to increase the commission fee for cashing out dollars when using manat cards.”

He added that increasing the fee for this type of transaction has nothing to do with the four-percent currency corridor set by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the banks should adhere to it when determining the exchange rate.