Tuesday, March 6 2012 14:57
Converse Bank opens branch in Nagorno-Karabakh
ArmInfo. Converse Bank is going to be active in Nagorno-Karabakh and for this purpose has opened a branch in Stepanakert.
The branch will be officially inaugurated in early May 2012 but is already providing services.
ArmInfo's own correspondent in Stepanakert quotes CEO of Converse Bank Tigran Davtyan as saying that in Nagorno-Karabakh the bank will provide the same services as it provides in Armenia.
The key activity will be lending to agriculture. Agricultural equipment worth 2bln AMD or $5mln will be brought to Nagorno-Karabakh to be leased or provided as commodity credits.
Nagorno-Karabakh's Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan said that the producers of the equipment will have offices in Stepanakert so as to be able to maintain and repair it. The terms of the lending will be specified within a month, with the Nagorno-Karabakh Government to partly or fully cover the interest or even partly repay the principal.
The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities have a number of joint projects with Converse Bank. In 2011 the bank issued 55bln AMD ($143mln) worth of loans against 17bln AMD ($44mln) in 2007.
According to ArmInfo's Ranking of Commercial Banks of Armenia, Jan 1 2012 there were 18 branches of Armenian banks in Nagorno-Karabakh, with Artsakh Bank alone having 12. Ardshininvest and Armbusinessbank have 6 each. Converse Bank's Stepanakert branch was registered in Feb 2012.
Jan 1 2012 the bank's loan book totaled 54bln AMD (with 41% of the loans given to the economy).