Friday, May 28 2010 14:14
EBRD and Ameriabank have signed an agreement on Trade Facilitation Programme
ArmInfo. The EBRD Annual General Meeting 2010 was held in Zagreb on May 15 this year attracting over 2000 attendees, including bankers, donors and commercial sponsors.
The press service of Ameriabank told ArmInfo that one of the highlights of AGM proved to be the EBRD's Trade Facilitation Programme award ceremony for the most active Issuing and Confirming banks during 2009.
During the ceremony Ameriabank signed an issuing bank agreement, thus becoming a member of the Trade Facilitation Programme network. The agreement will allow Ameriabank to expand and promote financing of international trade transactions of its clients. Under the facility, the EBRD will guarantee trade finance instruments issued by Ameriabank on behalf of its Armenian clients in favour of international commercial banks, effectively mitigating risks for the Confirming banks.
Ameriabank has thus become the tenth bank in Armenia to participate in the EBRD's TFP. Overall there are currently 121 Issuing banks in 20 countries of operations of EBRD and over 750 Confirming banks worldwide which represent the TFP network on the intraregional and international level.
Ameriabank is one of the most dynamic banks in Armenia and ranked among the country's most stable financial institutions. It is one of the first investment banks in Armenia, and since 2007 has been providing an extensive list of innovative banking products and services specifically tailored to meet its customers' needs.
According to the Ranking of Commercial Banks of Armenia by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo), as of 1 April 2010, the assets of Ameriabank amounted to 110.5 bln AMD (5th position), with the annual growth being 36,6%. In the structure of assets credit portfolio made up 61,3%, or 67.7 bln AMD (5th position), with the annual growth being 87,1%. In the credit portfolio the lion's share fell on industry crediting - 30,1% or 20.4 bln AMD (2nd position) and trade crediting - 21,1% or 14.3 bln AMD (4th position).
The EBRD, owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental institutions, is supporting the development of market economies and democracies in countries from central Europe to central Asia.