V International Banking Forum,

Tahmina Guliyeva

Azerbaijan Banks Association (ABA) was founded by the initiative of 10 private banks in 1990 and was registered with the name of “Azerbaijan Commercial and Cooperative Banks Association”. It has been operating under the name of “Azerbaijan Banks Association” since 1999. At present, 25 banks and 3 non-banking credit organizations and Azericard Ltd. are members of ABA.

The main purpose of the establishment of ABA was to actively protect the corporate interest of member organizations before legislative, executive and judicial bodies of the government, social organizations and international institutions, to meet their demand for different types of business services and to coordinate their activity.

During its operation, ABA has closely worked with the above-mentioned organizations and undertaken serious work in the direction of banking legislation improvement, establishment of international relations of the banks, formation of their infrastructure and ensured support of the banking sector to the reforms implemented by the Government and the Central Bank.

To increase the proficiency of bank employees, ABA, with the financial and technical support of European Union TACIS Program, has established Azerbaijan Bank Training Center (ABTC) in 2000. Besides, in 2001, ABA has established Court of Arbitration to ensure the out-of-court settlement of disputes that may occur between the member organizations. To support reforms in the improvement of payment systems, as well as to provide consulting services on the application of new information technologies to the member organizations, Bank Information Technologies Center was established in 2003. ABA founded the “Banks and Business” newspaper in 1999 and the journal with the same name in 2003.

Taking into consideration the importance of international practice for its activity, ABA has enhanced mutual cooperation relations with CIS and European countries by signing Cooperation Agreements (CA) with the bank associations of 13 countries and a regional banks association. Moreover, ABA was accepted to the membership of the International Coordination Council (International Banking Council) of the bank associations of CIS, Central and Eastern Europe on September 6, 2007 and became associate member of European Banking Federation (EBF) in February 2008.

ABA has initiated the establishment Coordination Council of the bank associations of GUAM countries and relevant Agreement was signed in 2007. With another initiative of ABA, an Agreement on the establishment of the Central Eurasian Banking Federation was signed in 2009, in Istanbul, Turkey and the Federation was registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2010.

Though ABA has been implementing its training activities through the ABTM, it supported and took part in other educational initiatives within its authorities as well. “Bilasuvar school-lyceum complex” after the name of Mubariz Aghakarim Ibrahimov, National Hero of Azerbaijan (currently “Bilasuvar kindergarten-school-lyceum complex”) was founded together with the Central Bank under ABA. The Association has provided and will continue to provide financial and technical support to the operation of the lyceum henceforth.