OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2010. Standard & Poor’s Governance Services ranks AccessBank as the ‘most transparent Azerbaijani bank

Today it was announced that AccessBank has been assessed as the ‘most transparent Azerbaijani bank’ by the Standard & Poor’s Ratings Agency in its inaugural Transparency & Disclosure (T&D) Survey of Azerbaijan’s Banks.  The survey covered the 30 largest Azerbaijani banks accounting for 96% of total banking assets and reviewed publicly available annual reports, web-based disclosures, and public regulatory reporting.  The banks were evaluated against a checklist of 111 items relating to: ownership structure and corporate procedures; financial and operational information; and board and management structure and process.  AccessBank was the highest scoring bank in the survey.

"We are glad to present the results of our first survey performed in Azerbaijan. In providing an assessment of disclosure practices among Azerbaijani banks and benchmarking these against several regional peers and other emerging economies surveyed, we seek to raise awareness of current weaknesses in transparency. We are hopeful that our survey will ultimately contribute to improved disclosure standards in the banking sector of Azerbaijan," said Standard & Poor's governance analyst Elena Pastoukhova. “Our group has a vast experience in conducting T&D surveys: in 2002, Standard & Poor’s published its first and the most global T&D study covering more than 30 countries. After 2003 we have published a number of surveys in different developing countries. As a result of continued interest among investors and analysts, Standard & Poor’s has been updating some of its surveys and continuously developing the methodology.”

Andrew Pospielovsky, General Manager of AccessBank, welcoming the announcement, said: “Transparency in all our operations, including with clients and investors, has always been one of the key goals of AccessBank.  Being recognized as the most transparent bank in Azerbaijan by Standard & Poor’s is confirmation that we are Transparent in fact and not just words.”