WB further assists Azerbaijan in improving financial sector
By Nigar Abbasova
A mission of the World Bank on financial and private sector development in the South Caucasus, headed by senior financial sector specialist Angela Prigozhina, will arrive in Baku on February 19.
The WB local office told Trend that the main purpose of the mission is to discuss the beginning of work within the second phase of the Financial Sector Development Program.
The WB mission, which will stay in Baku until March1, plans to discuss a variety of projects covering the insurance market, strengthening the financial infrastructure and solving the problem of overdue loans.
Besides, the mission will discuss the issue of improving the deposit insurance system in Azerbaijan.
The first phase of the Financial Sector Development Program was completed in June 2016. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) allocated a grant of $4 million for its implementation in 2012.
The SECO will allocate $3 million as part of technical assistance to the second project on modernization of financial sector in Azerbaijan. The agency, which is responsible for planning and implementation of economic and trade policy measures, is expected to initially allocate some $2.2 million
Further, SECO will allocate additional $400,000 by November 30, 2018, and the same sum by November 30, 2019. The three tranches are expected to be totally drawn by August 2021.
As part of the technical assistance, SECO and the WB will support Azerbaijani government in enhancing the country’s financial stability by expanding regulatory and legal framework of the financial sector, as well as by strengthening regulatory and supervisory powers of Azerbaijan’s Financial Market Supervisory Body.
The assistance will cover five directions, namely supervision over the financial market, liquidation of banks, deposit insurance system, protection of consumers' rights and non-performing loans.
As part of the technical assistance, recommendations will be prepared to change the legal and institutional framework of the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF) to bring its activities in line with international standards, speed up the repayment of compensations and improve the mechanism of financing in unforeseen circumstances.
Azerbaijan became a WB member in 1992.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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