Baku, Finance Time. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is providing a USD 17m senior loan facility to AccessBank for supporting the development of SME business in Azerbaijan.

On behalf of AccessBank, CEO Michael Hoffmann commented: “We highly value the support of the BSTDB who is a long-term partner and an important shareholder of AccessBank. In the light of the current challenging economic environment the transaction is an important signal of trust and confidence from the side of BSTDB in our Bank and reflects that AccessBank enjoys full support of its shareholders. The funds will be allocated to the Bank’s SME clients of which many are operating in the regions of the country so that the BSTDB financing will contribute to spur the development of regional economies”.          

 AccessBank was founded in 2002 by organizations such as the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, EBRD, IFC, KfW, a German consulting company LFS Financial Systems (LFS) and AccessHolding. AccessBank – one of the leading banks of Azerbaijan, offers a full range of banking services and has an extensive branch network, which employs about 1,800 people. Fitch Ratings assessed AccessBank as BB+, the highest credit rating among all banks in Azerbaijan.