VTB Bank (Armenia) isoffering a loan programme to students who have got admitted to a university and have to pay a tuition fee. The bank's press office has informed ArmInfo that the loan will be allocated in AMD with a maturity of up to 10 years with 12% interest rate; Ministry of Finance will subsidize 2% of the interest rate. If a student reaches excellent academic achievement the MF will subsidize 3%. Parents or custodians are to sign a guarantee. Loan amount per each academic year should not exceed 450 thsd AMD. It is also to be 1.8 mln AMD for the whole apprenticeship term. The loan is allocated and serviced free of charge. Students are given the opportunity to choose among several loan repayment methods - either annuity repayments or interest payment before graduation. This will be followed by post-graduation annuity repayment method.
BA and MA students of state and state-accredited educational foundations in Armenia can get the aforementioned loan to pay their tuition fees. According to ArmInfo's Rating of Banks of Armenia, as of Apr 1 2015 VTB Bank (Armenia) is among TOP-3 banks by the loan portfolio - over 223bln AMD (nearly 70% of total assets), with the retail lending accounting for over 40% of total. The consumer loans of the bank totaled 71.1 bln drams accounting for over 79% in the total retail loan portfolio. In 2014, VTB Bank (Armenia) increased its consumer loan book by 12.4%.
VTB Bank (Armenia) joined VTB Group in April 2004 and is fully owned by VTB Group, the second biggest bank in Russia. VTB Bank (Armenia) is one of the leaders of Armenia's banking sector. It has 67 branches
all over the country (the largest branch network in Armenia).