Local bank sees more manat deposits
By Nigar Abbasova
The recent increase in interest rate on deposits from 9.5 percent to 15 percent has already yielded certain results, including raise of attractiveness of Azerbaijan’s national currency, the manat.
Chairman of the Management Board of AccessBank, Michael Hoffmann told Trend that the volume of manat deposits in the bank increased by 40 percent during the past months, having reached the volume of about 100 million manats ($ 62.35 million).
“Deposits and funds of partner-banks are major source of crediting for AccessBank. A lot of foreign partners started to provide the bank with funds denominated in Azerbaijani manats.
The funds also include those partly issued by means of hedging mechanism [used in protecting one's capital against effects of inflation through investing in high-yield financial instruments (bonds, notes, shares), real estate, or precious metals], because borrowers in Azerbaijan have great demand for the national currency,” he said.
The bank’s loan portfolio is about $450 million (about 700 million manats), while its microcredit portfolio amounts to $130 million. Hoffmann noted that the decline in the loan portfolio is mainly due to the fact that currently, the demand for loans in Azerbaijan’s market is limited.
Hoffmann believes, that one of the most essential problems for the banking sector is shortage of manat means, as the interest to credits in a foreign currency has already come to nothing. Moreover, the volume of manat deposits in the bank also increased in recent month.
Hoffmann mentioned that AccessBank has also managed to increase its client base, mainly due to its high stability, high credit rating in Azerbaijan, as well as recognition by reputable financial institutions.
AccessBank was founded in 2002 by organizations such as the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, EBRD, IFC, KfW, a German consulting company LFS Financial Systems (LFS) and AccessHolding.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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