OREANDA-NEWS. July 26, 2011. During the first half-year the assets of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) have increased by eight percent and totaled 4.951 billion manats, says the bank’s report, reported the press-centre of IBA.

This amount does not include funding for public projects by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan which are served by the IBA, the amount of which currently stands at over 955 million manats.

The loan portfolio of the bank for the first six months increased by seven per cent (more than 200 million manat), - up to 3.153 billion manats, or about 39 percent of the total loan portfolio of the country’s banking sector. About 60 percent of credits issued per semester are non-state sector, mainly in the spheres of industry (45 million manats), trade and services (103 million manats) and agriculture (9.6 million manats). Individuals were given loans of different types in an amount of \\$ 26 million manats, such as car loans, mortgage and collateral credit and other types of credit, suggesting the direct involvement of the bank in the social sphere.

At that, the share of bad and dangerous loans at the end of six months was only 5.5% of the total loan portfolio, which in total is just over 169 million manats.

The IBA still has the largest client base in the region. At the end of June this year, the number of clients reached 767.000, of which 753. 000 are individuals.

Naturally, the bank's priority is to improve the quality of customer service. Being guided by this principle, it was decided last year to optimize business processes in the branches and the process approaches its completion.

In addition, it has already been for a year that a "CRM" project (customer relationship management) started and this project will give an opportunity to work more closely with customers of the bank, create a flexible system of servicing that allows to provide banking services individually depending on the nature and needs of our customers, says the report.

The Bank is also actively continuing to build innovative customer service system, such as "Internet Banking", "Mobile Banking", "Electronic commerce" and other high-tech products, increasing the level of service. Despite the fact that the bank has lowered interest rates on deposits, only over six months of this year, fixed-term deposits from the public in IBA increased by 16% and made already \\$ 603 million manats, while total deposits of individuals exceed 810 million manats.

Income of the population from investments in the IBA over six months amounted to more than 33 million manats, and this is more by 37% against the same period last year. In general, the bank's liabilities at the end of six months increased by nine percent and made USD 4.26 billion manats.

The authorized capital of the only state-controlled bank as of July 1 this year amounted to 240 million manats and the balance capital rose in six months by 3.5% to 689 million manats. Over the six months the IBA transferred to the budget of the republic about 15 million manats of various taxes.

The IBA’s revenues over the six months in 2011 totaled 170.8 million manats, while profit before tax amounted to more than 14.4 million manats, which is also an indicator of stability and
prosperity of the bank.

At present, the number of active cards of the bank’s clients is more than 1.8 million pieces, and this is more than 40 percent of the country's card market. For the six months of 2011 the turnover of card transactions totaled 1.4 billion manats.

In 2002 the number of cards in the International Bank of Azerbaijan was 28 thousand pieces, and the turnover of card transactions was at the level of 71 million U.S. dollars. The IBA also develops its own acquiring network: so far in the big stores, famous boutiques, restaurants, hotels, etc. 3613 POS-terminals were installed.

The International Bank of Azerbaijan was established in 1992 as a successor of the Azerbaijani branch of "Vnesheconombank". The IBA holds a dominant position in the banking sector. The state share in the charter capital of the bank is 50.2 percent share and the rest are distributed among private individuals and legal entities.