New BSTDB Facility to Support Small Business Development in Azerbaijan
Press Release | 23-Jun-2013
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) provides a USD 15 million 3-year SME credit line to AccessBank (Azerbaijan). The proceeds of the credit line will be on-lent to support the creation, modernization, and expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) s in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
“We are pleased to strengthen our cooperation with AccessBank, which was established in 2002 by BSTDB and other development banks. AccessBank is the market leader in SME financing in Azerbaijan. Through this partnership, BSTDB supports a large number of SMEs and contributes to the non-oil private sector business development by offering easier access to capital resources” said Andrey Kondakov, BSTDB President at the loan signing ceremony in Baku.
It is a third credit line that BSTDB extends to AccessBank for SME sector support, bringing the total amount of financing to USD 22 million.
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AccessBank was founded in 2002 by BSTDB, EBRD, IFC, KfW and the German consulting company LFS Financial Systems (LFS). The Bank started operations under the name of Micro Finance Bank of Azerbaijan and was re-branded to AccessBank in 2008. AccessBank concentrates on high-yielding small-, micro and retail lending. The bank operates through 35 branches across Azerbaijan, employs 1,467 staff and was sixth largest in the country by loans at end-2012. AccessBank is rated BB+ by Fitch Ratings, the highest rating of any private bank in Azerbaijan.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is an international financial institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Türkiye, and Ukraine. The BSTDB headquarters are in Thessaloniki, Greece. BSTDB supports economic development and regional cooperation by providing loans, credit lines, equity and guarantees for projects and trade financing in the public and private sectors in its member countries. The authorized capital of the Bank is SDR 3 billion (appx. EUR 3.5 billion). BSTDB is rated long-term “A-” by Standard and Poor’s and “A3” by Moody’s. For more information visit www.bstdb.org.
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