Friday, September 14 2012 20:13
Most of Armenian banks refrain from participating in national agricultural lending program for lack of agricultural lending technologies
ArmInfo. Most of the Armenian banks refrain from participating in the national agricultural lending program for lack of agricultural lending technologies, President of the Union of Banks of Armenia, Chairman of the Board of Araratbank Ashot Osipyan told journalists on Friday.
He said that his bank does not have such technologies either, but once it adopts them under its EBRD-funded agricultural project, it will join the national program.
When asked by ArmInfo's correspondent why the loans under the program are concentrated in the hands of one bank (meaning ACBA-Credit Agricole), Osipyan said that that bank has the best technologies in the field. "I would not call this concentration, but it certainly has the biggest share," the banker said.
Four banks – ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, Ardshininvestbank, Converse Bank and ProCredit Bank - are involved in the national agricultural lending program. The program was launched Apr 1 2011 and offers AMD loans at 14%, with 4% subsidized by the government (6% for the poorest entities).
According to ArmInfo's Ranking of Commercial Banks of Armenia, in Jan- June 2012 Armenia's banks lent agriculture a total of 96.3bln AMD (30% more than in Jan-June 2011). The leader is as always ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank - 48% of the total. The other leaders are VTB Bank (Armenia), Ardshininvestbank, Armbusinessbank and Armeconombank. Araratbank showed the biggest sixfold growth in agricultural lending during the period.
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