FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2006
SME Support through Financial Sector Development
ACDI/VOCA Implemented Project
Office: 598-1243/44
Email: sme_finance@acdivoca.org.az
www.smefinance.az
US-funded Project Holds Seminar on Credit Registry System
in Azerbaijan
USAID initiated the new SME Support through Financial Sector Development
Project in Azerbaijan in September 2005 and entrusted its realization to ACDI/VOCA,
the US non-profit international organization
that has a broad experience in development of SMEs around the world.
As the project aims at improving the legal and regulatory environment for non-bank
financial institutions working in Azerbaijan, the seminar "Credit Registries
in Azerbaijan: What is Next?" was held on April 26, 2006 in International
Press Center, Baku. Officials from government agencies, banks, NBFIs and donor
organizations gathered in order to discuss legal and regulatory obstacles that
Azerbaijani financial community encounters now, ways to improve investment climate
for these organizations as well as to adopt international best practices in
this field.
Roger Nye, project`s Senior Credit Registry Specialist who spent three weeks
in Azerbaijan assessing the central credit registry (CCR) run by the National
Bank of Azerbaijan, presented his findings to the audience. He described the
overall benefits of a sound credit registry for lenders, borrowers, country's
financial system and the whole economy. Although there are some fears in transitional
economies among lenders and borrowers that their sensitive financial information
can be misused, the experience shows that positive effects that such credit
registry offers for the financial system outweigh all possible doubts.
According to him, several CIS countries like Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
even established private credit registries recently, because the role of the
public credit registry (i.e. one operating under the state control) is to supervise
the stability of financial system of the country in question, while private
credit registries can more efficiently gather and disseminate information on
private borrowers.
At the same time, this process should not be hurried up because the current
Azerbaijani credit registry system is capable of self-improvement. Mr. Nye told
the participants about some possible amendments to the CCR, such as a "black
list" of bad borrowers; an "early warning system" if a borrower
starts missing payments at any bank, etc.
Muhammad Junaid, Chief of Party of the project, told the audience that the
project will continue its efforts to bring international best practices into
the financial system of Azerbaijan.
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