Finance minister: Law enforcement agencies help to repay loan worth 400M manats to IBA
By Nigar Abbasova
Law enforcement agencies helped to return bad loans worth around 400 million manats ($ 268 million) to the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), Finance minister Samir Sharifov said in his interview with Voice of America.
Special measures are taken to return the bad loans, the minister said.
"In some cases, the law enforcement agencies participate in these measures, because sometimes we face fraud," added Sharifov. "As a result of this intervention [the participation of law enforcement agencies], it was possible to return around 400 million manats."
As for the IBA's privatization, the minister said the process will begin after the bank's recovery.
"The bank's recovery will take some time," the minister said. "Financial advisors, most likely influential investment companies, will be involved immediately after this process. Thus, the bank will be prepared for privatization."
President Ilham Aliyev ordered rehabilitation measures for the IBA, in a decree on July 15 that should be completed within the next six months. The president’s order also mentioned that the bank's privatization plan should be submitted to his office for review.
President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the measures for rehabilitation related to the preparations for privatizing the state-owned shares of the International Bank of Azerbaijan JSC in July 2015.
Under the decree, to maintain the bank’s financial stability, uninterrupted fulfillment of the obligations, in particular, eliminating the negative impact of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis on the bank’s financial position, the relevant state bodies rendered constant support to the bank.
IBAR was established in 1992.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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