Azerbaijan’s banking industry is still recuperating from a bout of poor health, triggered by plummeting oil prices and a halving of the manat’s value. While structural problems persist, years of intensive care have at least resulted in some encouraging signs.
For example, bank capitalisation levels have increased significantly relative to 2017 and 2013 to 2015, and are now the among the highest in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). State-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan – which was saved from going bust at the end of 2016 when its capital adequacy was negative – boasted a robust Tier 1 capital ratio of 32% as of March 31, 2019.
