Iran has asked the government and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) to return the assets of Iranian entities remaining on the accounts of bankrupt Azerbaijani Royal Bank. Officials have appealed to the Azerbaijani government and CBA on the issue of solving the problem with the money of the Export Development Bank of Iran and other entities of the country, which remained on the accounts of Azerbaijani Royal Bank, which has declared its bankruptcy.
Hikmet Allahverdiyez, director of Moore Stephens in Azerbaijan, has the strong oppinion that if banks won't be aloud to have more freedom to invest across the economy, Islamic finance will fail. Azerbaijani banks can only provide "a limited set of Shari'ah compliant products" to retail customers.
At the end of last year Elman Rustamov, chairman of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, stated that the CBA has no plans to develop Islamic banking within the next two to three years.