German, Azerbaijani financial supervisory authorities mull co-op

By Azernews

By Leman Mammadova

Germany Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) is interested in providing technical support to Azerbaijan’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FIMSA).

FIMSA delegation was on a business trip to Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, on October 23-25, 2019.

As part of visit, Azerbaijani delegation met with representatives of BaFin to discuss establishing relationships and perspective directions for exchange of experience.

The representatives of the BaFin provided a presentation on the stress tests and control methods carried out by the organization and expressed their interest in inproviding technical support to the FIMSA.

It was noted that BaFin has broad experience in technical support and it can provide consistent technical assistance to the FIMSA in this regard.

Later, the Azerbaijani delegation visited the German Bundesbank. Bundesbank experts have stated that trainings on banking supervision and the transition to risk-based supervision could be beneficial for FIMSA.

German representatives also noted that currently, technical assistance projects are underway in several Eastern European countries, and it would be desirable to have Azerbaijan join their ranks.

The FIMSA delegation also met with Commerzbank officials responsible for the South Caucasus region and with representatives of Fitch Solutions.

The sides exchanged views on prospects of cooperation between Commerzbank and Azerbaijani banks and compliance training.

In addition, the possibility of further improving Azerbaijan’s position in Fitch rating was discussed with Fitch Ratings.

Fitch Ratings’ Q3 2019 report notes positive trends in Azerbaijan’s banking sector as restructuring, capitalization and lending capabilities due to measures taken to improve the banking sector and to resolve problem loans.

Since joining the Basel Consultative Group on August 2, 2019, FIMSA has been consistently working to further deepen links with relevant European institutions to apply international best practices in financial market supervision and exchange experiences.