Wednesday, October 5 2011 11:45
ProCredit Bank starts more dynamic and aggressive activity in Armenia
Arminfo. ProCredit Bank has started implementing more dynamic and aggressive strategy in Armenia, chairman of ProCredit Holding Christoph Freytag said when introducing a new executive director of ProCredit Bank in Armenia, Asmus Rotne.
As Freytag said, over the last three years in major part of the countries, where ProCredit Holding has been acting, including Armenia, it was very important to stabilize the situation taking into account the complicated economic situation.
"Thank God, our bank in Armenia has managed to successfully cope with the crisis," he said and added that within the new strategy the bank will focus on improvement of staff skills and pay greater attention to administration.
For his part, ProCredit Bank executive director, Asmus Rotne, said the bank is determined to become the leading bank for small business, both in terms of lending and services.
"Our goal is to become a steady and long-term partner for small businesses, providing them with high quality services through our professional staff, and be open and transparent with respect to our customers," he stressed. Speaking about working with individuals, Mr. Rotne said ProCredit Bank is aimed at promoting financial literacy of clients. "We will concentrate on developing a culture of savings," he said, adding that the bank will not stimulate the aggressive consumer lending to customers.
He also said that the bank's portfolio for crediting small business will be increased from the present $54.5 mln up to $96.5 mln by the end of 2012. He recalled that the bank has recently started offering its customers long-term credits up to 12 years for capital investments. Such credits are unique for Armenia, he said.
According to the executive director, this will give an opportunity to owners of small business to conduct more confident long-term investment activity. He also said that the portfolio of the funds of individual persons, which amounted to $21.8 mln, will be increased up to $39 mln by the end of 2012, and the number of customers - individual persons will grow from the present 11600 up to 14000. By the end of 2012 the bank will increase the number of its offices from the present 10 - up to 18, including 1 in Armavir and 7 in Yerevan. Thanks to this the bank is also going to increase the portfolio of agriculture crediting, which is $6 mln at present. According to the business-plan, the share of agriculture crediting will grow from the present 9% up to 20% in the aggregate credit portfolio of the bank, which amounted to $58 mln.
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