This report assesses loans and equity investments to private banks and leasing companies in Azerbaijan as well as a senior secured 5-year loan of $4 million to Bank Respublika entered into by ADB in 1996, followed in 2007 by an 8-year subordinated loan of $10 million. The main objective of the project was to strengthen the emerging private bank sector in a transition economy in which banking is still dominated by state-owned banks and to help expand the non-oil economy by financing micro and small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).