Elman Rustamov

The Azerbaijani economy has successfully overcome the implications of the global economic crisis despite the fact that at the peak of the crisis in the first half of 2009, world prices for oil and other export commodities fell dramatically along with a fall in the flow of external finances into the economy, the chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), Elman Rustamov, told 1news.az in an interview today.

However, he said the country's enormous financial reserves had allowed for flexibility in balancing economic growth. Azerbaijan's foreign reserves are sufficient for the uninterrupted financing of imports for two years and are six times the size of external public debt.
 
As for the strategy of consolidation and the overall development of the banking sector in the coming years, Rustamov said:
 
'We view the consolidation of the banking sector in the context of consolidation of its financial and capital base, the enhancement of investment potential and improvement of the quality of corporate governance.

'Consolidation of the banking sector is a long term and laborious process, which should serve the interests of our modern society. Different countries have different approaches to this. In our case, consolidation, as a rule, is a voluntary step of the market participants, who have decided that they can become more stable financial institutions.
 
'To date, we already have several precedents in which market participants took a decision on consolidation. And here I would especially like to note that all the precedents were successful in creating investment potential. Moreover, in our case, consolidation served as an important element, a catalyst for a sound banking business based on the principles of corporate governance, taking into account the interests of both shareholders and consumers of banking services. And what's most important is that, historically, this process was completely unnoticed and painless for the consumers of banking services.'
 
'Currently, the Central Bank is not considering the closure of banks, as the financial situation of institutions that form the banking sector is stable and not serious,' Elman Rustamov said.

1 news.az