Azerbaijan's banking sector withstands global crisis: CBA

The dynamic growth of main banking indicators, particularly the deposits of the Azerbaijani population, give reason to believe that Azerbaijan's banking sector withstood the test of global crisis.The remarks were made by Director General of Azerbaijan's Central Bank (CBA) Rashad Orujov, according to Azernews.According to him, the dynamic development of the banking sector in Azerbaijan has affected the qualitative and quantitative indicators of the sector."Even in the post-crisis period the banking system demonstrated an average increase of 16-17 percent a year. The analogue indicators on loan portfolio and capitalization amounted to 20 and 30 percent respectively. The household deposits also increased over 4 percent annually," he said.According to him, the qualitative indicators also are at a good level."The most important indicator of stability in the finance system- loan adequateness-stands at over 17 percent which exceeds the minimal international requirements by two-fold, and the CBA requirements- by over than five percentage points," Orujov said.The CBA general director went on to say that the joint activity of the CBA and Azerbaijani government played a significant role in the stability and predictability of the banking sector."The prudential and monetary-credit measures taken by the central bank were aimed at minimizing the effects of the global crisis on the banking system of Azerbaijan. The result of these measures was that the country's banking sector, unlike many countries of the world and the region, is stable, with no excessive tensions observed there. Over the past period, a stable macroeconomic environment was established, which allowed the banks to stay in the area of sustainable and long-term growth and comfort," he said.CBA statistics show that in the first nine months of 2013, the depositary base of Azerbaijani banks increased by 11.5 and 18.34 percent per annum.According to the CBA, as of October 1, the total amount of bank deposits and deposits of physical and legal entities was over 11.929 billion manats, compared to over 10.08 billion manats in the same period in 2012 and over 10.699 billion manats in early 2013.Compared to the same period in 2012, deposits of physical entities increased by 36.9 percent, while the volume of legal entities' deposits slightly increased by 3.03 percent.In the first nine months of 2013, the volume of physical entities' deposits in the banks amounted to over 6.237 billion manats, compared to over 4.556 billion manats in the same period in 2012.According to the Central Bank, around 3.81 billion (61.1 percent) of the population's funds were placed in the national currency -manats-, while 2.427 billion manats was placed in freely convertible currency.43 banks operate in Azerbaijan.ANN.Az