Thursday, March 29 2012 18:40
BTA Bank to focus on retail business in 2012
ArmInfo. In 2012 BTA Bank will focus on retail business, Head of the Retail Business Department of BTA Bank, Armen Sargsyan, told ArmInfo. He said that it is necessary to introduce retail projects for the loyal customers.
Within the frames of card projects, the Bank offers individuals to set on their salary cards an overdraft limit of up to 5 times their monthly salaries against the traditional 3 times salary in the market. The borrowers will pay 3,000 AMD for the service of the Gold salary card, which is several times lower than the standard market tariffs, he said.
In 2012 the Bank will continue increasing the gold-secured loans as the least risky type of lending at present. The Bank will continue actively working on salary overdrafts. Sargsyan said that today the bank offers the borrowers the most profitable conditions in the market for the abovementioned two products. In particular, the amount of the gold-secured loan is 100% of the mount of the secured property, and the interest rate of the loan depends on the loan amount: the bigger the loan amount, the lower the rate. The commission fee for the loan service in BTA Bank is much lower than in the market and also depends on the loan amount but does not exceed 10 thsd AMD for 1 loan.
At the same time, according to the expert, the economic situation in Armenia will improve in 2012-2013 amid the improvement of the world economy, and the citizens' solvency will grow. This will allow the Armenian banks to increase their credit portfolios and to dampen the lending terms.
According to the Ranking of Commercial Banks of Armenia by ArmInfo, in 2011 BTA Bank increased its credit portfolio by 13.2%, over Q4 - by 11.8% to 4.8 bln AMD ($12.6 mln). In the structure of the credit portfolio of the Bank, the loans in the real sector of economy were up 63%. Lending to SMEs was up almost 66%, to transport and communication - up 61%, trade sector - up almost 30%, public catering and services - up 18%. Having reduced the share of consumer loans, the Bank was able to decrease the overdue loans by 22% over 2011 and to increase the standard loans in the real sector by 31%. In 2011 the assets of the Bank increased by 14%, and over Q4 - by almost 10% to 9.4 bln AMD ($24.4 mln). In 2011 the Bank increased its liabilities by 30%, and over Q4 - by 26% to 3.9 bln AMD ($10.2 mln). At the moment the Bank has 5 branches: 4 in Yerevan and 1 in Gyumri.
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