ArmInfo. The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) has provided two loans to Inecobank, a longstanding partner institution in Armenia, to support the bank in responding to the economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis the official website of EFSE reports.
As the EFSE report explains, one loan in the amount of USD 10 million is earmarked for micro and small enterprise lending in order to sustain the operations of these key businesses with much-needed liquidity. The second, a local currency loan equivalent to USD 5 million, will respond to the demand for housing finance that contributes to improved living standards in the country.
Inecobank and EFSE have collaborated to expand access to financing and promote economic development in Armenia since 2012. The bank is well positioned to confront the effects of the current pandemic through its solid track record, professional staff, and market-leading IT infrastructure, including digital banking solutions that enable uninterrupted operations for both the bank and its clients. The new loan facilities will support Inecobank's continued ability to provide longer-term financing to both businesses and households, including in local currency, while strengthening the institution's liquidity levels.
EFSE Board Chairman Christoph Tiskens said: "As an important conduit of micro and small enterprise finance, Inecobank has been a strategic ally for EFSE in our goal to promote entrepreneurship in the region. Today, business and homeowners rely more than ever on solid financial infrastructure to help them weather challenging times, and we are proud to be continuing our partnership with Inecobank."
To note, the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE) was established in 2005 with the aim of promoting the development of the economy and general welfare in the countries of Southeast Europe, in particular Albania, Armenia, Ukraine, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania. The fund provides long-term subsidies to local financial institutions for lending to micro and small enterprises as well as medium-sized enterprises and low-income private households. In total, since its inception, the EFSE has directed over 922 million euros to finance commercial banks, microfinance institutions, as well as non-financial institutions, thereby making it possible to issue more than 247,000 loans to small and medium-sized enterprises and private households.
It should be noted that INECOBANK has been operating in the Armenian market since October 1996. In December 2016, ProCredit Bank merged with INECOBANK, and as part of this process, an institutional investor in the person of EBRD was attracted to the capital, which, four years later, in the first quarter of 2020, it left the capital. With this in mind, the shareholding of the majority shareholders of INECOBANK now looks as follows: Baloyan Avetis - 38.1%, Safaryan Karen - 32.95%, and the share of investment funds agRIF Cooperatief U.A. (Belgium) and DWM FUNDS S.C.A.-SICAV SIF (Luxembourg) remained unchanged at 10.01% and 5.1%, respectively.
