Thursday, November 29 2012 22:39
Ameriabank introduces new service - acceptance of letters of credit - becoming advising bank for big foreign investors
ArmInfo. Ameriabank has introduced a new service - acceptance of letters of credit (an advising bank), the bank's press-service told ArmInfo. The first contract unique for the Armenian banking system had been signed lately connecting a foreign bank with an Armenian company.
Introduction of this service will give more opportunities to Armenian companies to find new export markets, the bank leadership says. The bank does not report on the parties to the first transaction due to commercial secrecy.
The new banking service enables Ameriabank to boost cooperation with big foreign banks to attract more trade finance customers.
For this purpose, Ameriabank has already introduced a service of issue of letters of credit. The bank's operations with letters of credit for 10 months of 2012 totaled nearly 19 bln drams with over 2fold growth versus the same period of 2011. The trade finance portfolio of the bank totaled $50 million for the first half of 2012.
According to the Ranking of Armenian Banks prepared by ArmInfo Agency, the loan portfolio of Amerabank for Oct 1 2012 exceeded 166 bln drams (2nd rank in the market) with over 20% growth vs. the same period of 2011. Lending to economy sectors exceeded 127 bln drams with 70.2% Y-o-Y growth. The loan portfolio of the bank is concentrated on trade and industry sectors (1st rank). For 9 months of 2012 Ameriabank ensured 4.7 bln drams profits (2nd rank) with nearly 60% Y-o-Y growth.
To recall, Ameriabank CJSC is a universal bank providing investment, corporate and retail banking services in a full package of bank services. The majority shareholder of the bank is America Group (since Nov 2011) with 99.99% shares.
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