Tag Archives: banking

Azerbaijanian authorities release Iranian assets

JULY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Iranian government said that Azerbaijan’s authorities had decided to release assets belonging to Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) and the Central Bank of Iran, as part of the relaxation of international sanctions against Iran. Mohsen Pak Ayeen, Iran’s Ambassador to Baku, said that a total of $400m held at the International Bank of Azerbaijan were released by local courts.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Islamic banking grows in Kazakhstan

JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Zaman Bank, a small bank in Kazakhstan, said it had converted into an Islamic financial institution. Kazakhstan’s Central Bank signed off on the deal. With assets of 15.7b tenge ($46.5m), Zaman has a small presence in the Kazakh banking market and only one branch, in Almaty. Zaman will now join Bank Al-Hilal the more prominent Islamic lender in the country. Islamic banking, which promotes lending with an Islamic ethos, is becoming more popular in Central Asia’s finance sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Loans in Kazakh banks shrink

JULY 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The proportion of overdue loans held by Kazakh banks in their combined portfolio shrank from 22.8% to 8.6% at the end of May 2016, compared to a year earlier, Central Bank data showed. The main reason behind the sharp decrease, though, is that Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s biggest lender, wrote off most of its bad debt.

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(News report from Issue No. 290, published on July 22 2016)

Kazakh minister of economy receives new roles

JULY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In his capacity as head of the Baiterek state holding, Yerbolat Dossayev, former Kazakh minister of economy, was named chairman of Zhilstroisberbank, a top-15 bank in Kazakhstan and subsidiary of Baiterek. A few days later Mr Dossayev was also named head of KazExportGarant, an export credit agency, and chairman of Kazakhstan’s Investment Fund, which are both managed by Baiterek.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Armenia signs clear stream deal

JULY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Central Depository of Armenia, the stock exchange’s securities market unit, signed a deal with debt trading house Clearstream, which is based in Luxembourg but is owned by the German Stock Exchange, which it said would boost transparency and reliability in the Armenian bond market. Clearstream made a similar agreement with Georgia in January. Armenia has become Clearstream’s 56th international partnership.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Kazakh bank still suffers from Global Financial Crisis

JULY 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank is still suffering from the impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said as it downgraded the bank’s outlook because it had not been able to reduce the proportion of toxic assets in its loan portfolio. In the first six months of 2016, overdue loans grew to 11.7% of the bank’s total portfolio, up from 9.2% at the end of 2015. Halyk Bank is the second-largest bank in Kazakhstan. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s daughter Dinara and her husband Timur Kulibayev own Halyk Bank.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Armenia’s Ameriabank issues bonds

JULY 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ameriabank, Armenia’s largest bank, said it issued $15m in bonds on Armenia’s stock exchange, ahead of a potential IPO. The bonds will mature in just over two years with a coupon of 6.75%. In January, Ameriabank said it was planning an IPO inLondon, after it received an investment of around $100m from international lenders.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

Kazakh CB approves RBS sale

JULY 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank approved the sale of the local subsidiary of Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland to Russian lender Expobank, owned by Igor Kim. The deal had been announced in June. Earlier this year, Mr Kim bought RBS’s Russian subsidiary. The sale of RBS is considered important for Kazakhstan’s ailing banking sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

China wants to build bank in Georgia

JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Chinese holding company Hualing wants to build the third largest bank in Georgia by merging Basisbank, of which it owns 90%, and Bank Republic, which it is looking to buy. France’s Societe Generale owns a 93.6% stake in Bank Republic and the EBRD owns the rest. If the agreement with Hualing goes through, Societe Generale will own an 8% stake in the merged bank and the EBRD will own a 3.9%. In recent months,Hualing has also heavily invested in Georgia’s construction sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)

EIB plans loan to Azerbaijan’s AccessBank

JULY 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) said it plans to issue a €20m ($22m) loan to Azerbaijan’s AccessBank. Banks in Azerbaijan have suffered cash shortages this year, after the Central Bank abandoned the currency peg to the US dollar, slashing the value of the manat. AccessBank mainly funds small and medium enterprises. The EIB had issued a €25m ($27m) loan in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 288, published on July 8 2016)