Amid the overall growth of non-interest expenses in the banking sector, VTB (Azerbaijan) remains the only notable exception, having managed to cut these costs by 10.7% over the past year. This particularly distinguishes the bank against the backdrop of other market participants, where expenses continue to rise without obvious economic justification.
According to FinFly.News data, in the first half of 2024, non-interest expenses of the five largest banks already exceeded 70 million manats. Kapital Bank spent 470.7 million manats, Azerbaijan International Bank — 316.8 million, PASHA Bank — 166.85 million, Unibank — 121.1 million, and Bank Respublika — 71 million manats. Other banks also demonstrate high costs: 14 of them have non-interest expenses in the range of 10–70 million manats, and only two banks keep the figure below 10 million.
Over the past year, only two banks managed to reduce non-interest expenses — VTB (Azerbaijan) and PASHA Bank (–12%). The remaining 19 banks, on the contrary, increased costs, and in some cases the growth looks excessive. The highest dynamics were recorded at AFB Bank — +49.3%, while the minimum growth at Expressbank was only 2%.
Overall, the situation demonstrates a negative trend: most banks continue to increase non-core expenses, while only a few players, such as VTB (Azerbaijan), show the ability to control costs amid growing financial pressure.
