Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

A strong and more stable bank is expected to appear in the banking market of Azerbaijan following the merger of AtaBank and Caspian Development Bank.

The Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) will take an active part in the process of merging these two banks and its main priority will be to protect the interests of customers.

"The merger of the banks will be successful," said Imran Mammadov, member of the board at FIMSA, at a press conference dedicated to the decision of reorganization and liquidation of the Caspian Development Bank and transferring of its assets to AtaBank, held in Baku on April 21.

Mammadov believes that the merger of AtaBank and Caspian Development Bank will allow creating a stronger and more stable bank. “We have been studying the possible impact of the consolidation on the two banks’ financial stability, as well as its effect on the entire banking sector, for the last 2-3 months,” he underlined.

In accordance with the decision made at the general shareholders’ meeting of these banks, Dayanat Guliyev will serve as acting chairman of AtaBank’s board and Farah Mammadova will be acting chairperson of the bank’s supervisory board.

PwC multinational accounting firm was attracted to evaluate the assets of the two banks due to their reorganization.

Executive Director of Synergy Group Ismayil Suleymanov said that depositors of Caspian Development Bank will not have any problems after merging with Atabank.

"After the merger, Atabank will become the legal successor of Caspian Development Bank, and all its obligations will be transferred to Atabank. I want to note that in this regard, the depositors of Caspian Development Bank will not have any problems," Suleymanov said.

Synergy Group is the main shareholder of Caspian Development Bank, and, according to Suleymanov, since April he is also the owner of Atabank, which previously belonged to AtaHolding (76 percent of shares) and private individuals (26 percent).

After the merger of Atabank and Caspian Development Bank, the management of the new bank does not plan to reduce its staff, said Farah Mammadova, chairman of the Caspian Development Bank Supervisory Board.

"The policy of the bank's shareholders is that we will not allow staff reduction," she said.

Mammadova noted, currently Caspian Development Bank’s staff consists of 100 people, and Atabank employs 415 people.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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