"Basic principals of banking are the same in all countries, hence the basis of financial products are similar too - you receive money as a deposit and provide it in the form of loans to customers that need it, which in its essence is an intermediary business. If you do it right, both parties will be satisfied and you'll make a profit margin. This simple rule is the same in all countries. Of course, there may be differences arising from the variety of financial products, capital markets environment, regulatory effect, and so on," Davit Tsiklauri, Chairman of the Management Board of AccessBank said in an interview with Paralel.Az-Economics.

"The banking market of Azerbaijan is developing, albeit for the last 10 years the pace of development has been slower than in the region and there are very valid reasons for that. If we look at the years 2015-2016, after the devaluation and economic decline, the banks went into the self-recovery process, there were multiple restructurings, closures of banks, etc. Once that process was over, the COVID-19 virus pandemic started, and we all know very well what impact it had not only on the banking sector but on all areas of the economy. If you look at the post-pandemic performance of the banks, i.e. after 2021, the whole sector started to grow again, and the economic conditions for the last two years have been very favorable for the banking sector. I hope that the sector will grow further in the near term as I think that the conditions to achieve that will remain favorable.

I also think that the growth will stem further on the back of low-penetration (bank debt to GDP) numbers in Azerbaijan. The same indicated in the nearby countries (such as Türkiye, Kazakhstan, or Georgia) is much higher than in Azerbaijan, allowing for quite some potential," the Chairman of the Management Board of AccessBank said.