Improving financial literacy among population to bolster profitability of financial sector in Azerbaijan

Improving financial literacy among the population will help to increase the profitability of the financial sector of Azerbaijan, the director of the Azerbaijan Bank Training Center Javanshir Abdullayev said at a symposium on the financial literacy in Baku.

The symposium was organized by the Azerbaijani Association of Banks, Azerbaijan Bank Training Center and Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation of Germany, supported by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"Improving financial literacy contributes to increasing the number of clients in the banks. As most people do not have bank accounts, it is necessary to inform about financial services rendered by different financial institutions," Abdullayev said.

He said that the center has recently held talks with 28 Azerbaijani banks. A decision was made to hold a major forum for the banking sector in March-April.

Abdullayev said that most banks in the country today focus on lending to the retail sector.

"There is only one credit registry under the central bank. Moreover, the registry does not include leasing and insurance companies and other financial institutions providing loans. It complicates the process of determining the total customer's credit history, " he said.

He said that it is necessary to conduct courses for pupils and students, as well as to create an electronic portal for education to improve the financial literacy.


/Trend/