Friday, October 13 2023 15:58

ArmInfo. The Converse Bank offers legal entities and private entrepreneurs to take advantage of  loan payment holiday as part of the Converse SME product.

"Converse Bank, by providing this opportunity to clients, helps them,  if necessary, quickly respond to business needs and meet the demand  for additional financial investments without attracting new funds,  just by taking advantage of the loan payment holiday," the report  reads. 

The terms within the Converse SME product are as follows: the loan  size ranges from AMD 5mln to AMD 250mln or the equivalent in foreign  currency; the annual interest rate (depending on the repayment  period) for AMD loans is set at 11% to 14.75%, for USD loans 8.5% to  9%, for EUR loans 6% to 7.25%; The loan repayment period is up to 180  months.

According to the ArmInfo Financial Rating of Armenian Banks as of  June 30, 2023, the volume of loans provided by Converse Bank to SMEs  exceeded AMD 30bln ($78 million). In the total loan portfolio of  Converse Bank, the share of loans to SMEs accounts for 12%. It is  worth noting that in the overall market, lending to SMEs in annual  dynamics noticeably deteriorated in growth rates from 31% to  stagnation 0.2%, while only in the first half of the year it showed  12% growth, of which 7% were provided in the second quarter of the  year. Given this picture of the annual dynamics of lending to SMEs,  steps like the above mentioned opportunities by banks will allow  growth to be restored to double-digit rates.