OREANDA-NEWS. December 08, 2009. The "International Bank of Azerbaijan" (IBA) considers the comments published by BNE portal (www.businessneweurope.eu) with regard to the ranking of 200 leading banks in Eurasian region as unfounded. This was stated to "APA-Economics" by Rauf Agayev, the head of Bank's press-service.

According to R. Agayev, the prepared ranking indicates that due to the impact of global financial crisis, over the past year, the volume of IBA's assets contracted by US1.1 billion. "In this connection we state that as of December 31st, 2008, the volume of IBA's assets totaled 4.316 billion manat, up by 68% as compared to the year-end results of 2007. Whereas as of October 1st of current year, IBA's assets amounted to 4.758 billion manats (around US6 billion).There is obviously a considerable increase in Bank's assets rather than their decrease. The portal also points out that, among the banks within Eurasian region, IBA moved from the 42nd place up to 32nd place, the fact that by itself demonstrates the growth in assets rather than their decrease", - said the head of press-service.

It is appropriate to recall that BNE portal has prepared the annual ranking of 200 largest banks within Eurasia region (Top-200). According to ranking, IBA retained the status of largest bank in Caucasus and moved from 42nd place up to 32nd place, but, over this period, its assets decreased from US5.2 billion down to US4.1 billion.

It is noteworthy that according to rating of "APA-Economics" for January-September 2009, over the past year, IBA achieved a 13% growth in assets and, as of October 1st of current year, the total volume of its assets amounted to approximately US5.926 billion.

Being the largest banking and credit organization in Azerbaijan and in the region, IBA has been operating since 1992. The government share in the Bank's charter capital constitutes 50.2%, while the rest 40% of shares are in private ownership, and 10% - belong to Bank's employees. As of October 1st of current year, the volume of Bank's assets amounted to 4,758.574 million manats, deposit portfolio - 1,944.185 million manats, credit portfolio - 3,596.347 million manats, aggregate capital - 452.106 million manats, including the charter capital - 200 million manats. The Bank currently operates 37 branches, 587 ATMs (automatic teller machine) and 2,717 POS-terminals throughout the country.