ArmInfo. In the next 2 years, Ameriabank intends to transfer all credit services to digital service channels. This was announced at the Ameriabank Retail Banking Director Arman Barseghyan at an online press conference held yesterday.
Due to the high growth rate of the client base, which by the end of the year, according to him, will increase by 2 times, it is impossible to ensure high quality of service and efficiency in solving emerging issues. "This is a definite challenge for us. Therefore, according to our strategy, the Bank is trying to transfer key services to digital service channels," said the banker. In this regard, he cited as an example the situation with consumer loans. According to A. Barseghyan, a year earlier, Ameriabank's consumer loans were serviced at the branches, as a result of which the borrower received a loan on average for 4-5 days. After the introduction of a scoring system, a loan is issued in a matter of minutes. Under this system, the bank serves and loans in installments. Now, as he noted, Ameriabank is working towards the digitalization of mortgage loans and car loans.
Nevertheless, as A. Barseghyan noted, this does not mean that the Bank does not need additional branches. "This need is both in terms of the volume of the client base and in terms of certain banking services," he noted. In this regard, he stated that several branches will be opened over the next 6 months, in particular, by the end of the year in the Norrk Nork administrative district, and in the next 3-4 months in the center of the city, as well as in the city of Abovyan. "This will increase the capacity of the branch network of the bank by 20%, and the introduction and promotion of digital services will allow us to properly serve our customers," he said.
At the same time, A. Barseghyan noted that next year the Bank intends to maintain the growth rate of the ATM network, in particular, in the coming year it is planned to increase their number by 20 pieces (against 118 pieces as of April 1 of this year - ed.) what will be dictated by the growth rate of the customer base. At the same time, he recalled that today the bank works with all the payment systems operating in the market, incl. with Easy Pay, MobiDram, TelCell, Idram.
Note that Ameriabank has been operating on the Armenian market since October 31, 1996. Shareholders of Ameribank on July 1, 2018 are Ameria Group CY Ltd. - 56.6%, EBRD - 17.8%, Asian Development Bank - 13.98%, ESPS Holding Limited - 11.62%. Ameriabank has a branch network of 16 subdivisions, of which 10 are metropolitan and 6 are regional.