"We are pleased to be in Baku and to sign the agreement on the Risk Sharing Facility with AccessBank. Because this is the first agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in the country,” said Elisabetta Falcetti, Managing Director for Türkiye and the Caucasus of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Paralel.Az-Economics reports.

According to the RSF agreement, EBRD and AccessBank will further facilitate access to financial resources for local companies and small and medium businesses. It will allow attracting innovation, investment, and overall growth of small and medium-sized businesses. In addition to increasing the financing of Azerbaijani businesses, this agreement will allow AccessBank to acquire new financing methods and know-how for efficient financing of SMEs within the country.

She noted that EBRD and AccessBank will allocate up to EUR 15 million each to share the risks of the loans provided.

Elisabetta Falcetti added that EBRD hopes to continue its cooperation with AccessBank: We are pleased to diversify our cooperation with financial institutions in Azerbaijan. This is the second bank we cooperate with in this country. We are currently working with Access Bank on other products. We hope to sign another agreement with the bank in this direction."

Recall that the RSF is a strategic framework within the Small Business Initiative dedicated to the growth and development of the private sector in the EBRD regions. RSF enables the Bank to share the risk of lending from partner banks to eligible businesses in need of working capital, which in turn helps SMEs grow and become more competitive.

To date, the EBRD has partnered with 42 local financial institutions to facilitate more than 425 RSF sub-loans with a total value of more than €1.07 billion to SMEs.