Bank history

Unibank was established on 15 October 2002 as a result of the merger of the two advanced private commercial banks of Azerbaijan - MBANK (1992) and PROMTEKHBANK (1994).

Bank today

Unibank is one of the biggest private banks of Azerbaijan. Unibank is the first private bank in Azerbaijan to have had the European Bank for Re-construction and Development, one of the biggest international finance institutions, among its shareholders. Unibank Commercial Bank is a universal finance and credit institution that renders services for retail as well as corporate Customers of various proprietary forms and fields of operation, as well as for finance and credit organisations. The Bank has built up its relationships with its Customers on the basis of equitable partnership, mutual support and complete trust. The Mission of the Bank: to be a first-class, highly stable and universal finance institution in terms of reliability, care of customers, application of the cutting-edge banking practices and the range of services rendered. Another highlight was the signing of the agreement for a syndicated loan making USD 5 mn from the EBRD and two major commercial banks of Europe (the Anglo-Romanian Bank and Austria Kreditanstalt) on 8 April 2005. It should be mentioned that that was the first experience of syndicated lending to a private Azeri bank. The purpose of that credit is to promote the development of the non-oil sector of the national economy; one more idea behind the syndicated loan facility is to stimulate competition in the national banking sector. The successful co-operation with the EBRD is an important element of the progress of UNIBANK's relationships with the international finance institutions, and stimulated in many respects the decision on the part of Germany's DEG to become another shareholder of the Bank. As a result of the negotiations held on 31 May 2005, the Boards of Directors of DEG and Unibank approved the admission of the former as an 8.3% shareholder of the Bank. Unibank is one of the first Azeri banks to lay the foundations of long-term co-operation with the German-Azeri Fund (GAF), which was established under the agreement between the governments of Germany and the Azerbaijan Republic in 1999 in order to implement the Small and Medium Business Financing Programme. The funds of the GAF are allocated by the German bank KfW (Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau). UNIBANK has financed great many SME units in very different economic sectors, such as trade, production, construction, transport and services, for example, in the format of the co-operation with the GAF. Unibank also co-operates successfully with a number of other finance institutions, among which the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the private sector (ICD). The fact that UniBank has been awarded a good range of remarkable international awards testifies to the leading position of the Bank in the Azeri market.
The awards include:

 - The Most Actively Development Bank in the Trade Facilitation Programme of the EBRD in Azerbaijan in 2003, awarded by the EBRD in April 2004
 - The Fastest-Growing Bank of Azerbaijan, by the reputable finance and business magazine The Banker (England); awarded in January 2005
 - The Best Bank in Azerbaijan 2005, by the reputable finance and business magazine Euromoney (England); awarded in July 2005
 - The Bank of the Year 2005 in Azerbaijan, by The Banker; awarded in September 2005

Today, the Bank provides its Customers with a broad range of banking services and products including cash handling, currency exchange and all kinds of documentary operations (LC settlements, collection and bank guarantees), lending, deposits, plastic cards, cheque service, consultancy, transactions with securities, et cetera. Also, the Bank is being active in the inter-bank lending market both attracting and extending inter-bank loans. The Bank has always maintained leadership in introduction of high technologies. UNIBANK was among the very few to launch its own Bank-Client electronic payment system back in 2000. The launch of that system made it possible for the Customers to obtain information on-line. Furthermore, the Bank was among the first few to put to use the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The Bank is a member of a number of specialist unions and organisations, international as well as in the republic, such as: 

 - The Bank Inter-Bank Currency Exchange (BICEX),
 - The Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Azerbaijan,
 - The Association of Banks of the Azerbaijan Republic,
 - The American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan,
 - The National Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan,
 - The Association of National Finance Institutions for Development in the Islamic Development  - Bank Member-Countries (ADFIMI),
 - The German-Azeri Union for Economic Assistance,
 - The Baku Stock Exchange (while also being one of the BSE founders).

Our relationships with the Customers are based on the long-term and mutually beneficial co-operation. We hope and believe that Unibank will henceforth remain a reliable partner and a good friend to our Customers.

Contacts

URL: http://www.unibank.az/