IFC mentored senior Bai-Tushum managers in strategic and business planning before the company’s successful transition to a closed joint-stock microfinance institution, with foreign equity participation. Bai-Tushum now has applied for an official deposit-taking license from the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic that will allow it to provide deposit, savings, and related services to the public.

The IFC Azerbaijan and Central Asia Microfinance Transformation Support Project provides advisory services to businesses in the Kyrgyz Republic and across the region that want to become microfinance institutions. Services include providing support for organizational and financial restructuring, investor relations, and consulting in key organizational and institutional capacity-building activities relevant to the transformation process.

Bai-Tushum, a long-term IFC investment client in the Kyrgyz Republic, is now one of the leaders in the country’s microfinance market, holding an estimated 26 percent market share. The company has a network of seven branches and 37 sub-branches nationwide that provide financial products to micro-entrepreneurs in various sectors.

“By being able to offer different deposit schemes to our clients, we will be able to mobilize savings from the population and increase our funding base,” said Gulnara Shamshieva, Bai-Tushum’s General Manager. “IFC’s expertise in the financial sector is helping us achieve this goal.”

Since 2008, IFC has supported microfinance companies in Azerbaijan and Central Asia in their transformation processes to achieve increased financial sustainability.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, creates opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We foster sustainable economic growth in developing countries by supporting private sector development, mobilizing private capital, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. Our new investments totaled US$14.5 billion in fiscal 2009, helping channel capital into developing countries during the financial crisis.