Finance

Finance

Credit bureau to be set up in Azerbaijan

10 December 2009 16:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev â€“ APA-Economics. A credit bureau will be launched in Azerbaijan as part of the Azerbaijan-Central Asia Financial Markets Infrastructure Advisory Services Project, said IFCâ€™s project specialist Teymur Heybatov.

According to him, the credit bureau will assist in reducing risks bad loans, operating costs, and boosting loan lending in the financial system.

"The new credit bureau will gather information about small and medium-sized businesses, including private borrowers. Along with this, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan has developed a draft law on Credit Bureau, which will be sent to relevant ministries for review in early 2010, then to parliament for discussion,â€ he added.

He noted that the credit bureau will start operation after the enactment of the bill.

In his words, banks will have to submit data on borrowers to the bureau.

Regarding capitalization of the bureau, he cited an IFC survey finding that 53% of banks are interested to take part in the capitalization and 47% refused to take equity.

The credit bureau will be overseen by CBA which currently operates a credit registry.
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