Tuesday, May 6 2014 16:32
ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank intends to increase its loan book by 15-20% in 2014
ArmInfo. In 2014 ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank intends to increase its loan book by 15-20%, Hakob Andreasyan, CEO at ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, has told ArmInfo. He says that in Q1 2014 the Bank's loan book grew by 10% to 178 bln AMD ($430.6 mln) in absolute terms.
"The major part of the Bank's loan book traditionally fell on agriculture loans, but this year we are planning to work out new products in consumer lending and SME lending, which will allow providing the customers with an extended package of banking services", said Andreasyan. According to the Financial Rating of Armenian Banks by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo), ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank retains leadership in terms of agriculture loans, occupying almost 50% of the summary agriculture lending. In terms of consumer and SME lending, the Bank is among the top 3 banks with its respective 12% and 10% of the summary loans provided to these segments by the banks.
Andreasyan says that ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank annually issues agriculture loans worth 20-25 bln AMD. The matter concerns non-investment loans with up to 2 years of redemption period. "Agriculture loans are the most reliable banking product to us, because our Bank has been working in this sector for about 18 years and it has gained full mutual confidence with the customers - farm entities", he stresses.
"As regards the profit, the Bank does not expect it to considerably grow in 2014, because the interest spread is essentially declining due to the toughened competition among the banks", he says.
As of 1 April 2014, the total capital of ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank amounted to 53 bln AMD (4.5% year over year growth), having ensured the Bank's leading position. In terms of assets, the Bank is among the top 5 banks with 264 bln AMD (4.6% year over year growth). The Bank's deposits totaled 109.6 bln AMD. Both time and call deposits increased. Since the Bank was founded, its customer base increased 25-fold and numbers 276 thsd customers. The number of employees grew 12-fold to 1050. In 2013 the Bank's net profit totaled 5.1 bln AMD (24.4% year over year growth) and the Bank found itself among the top 5.
The shareholders of the bank are Credit Agricole - 15.56% and SJSC Sacam International - 12.44% (member of Credit Agricole S.A. Group) and 10 agricultural cooperative banks. ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank is among the five most efficient banks in Armenia.
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