ArmInfo.70% of Ameriabank's business loans are provided through the Ameria Business online platform, which includes a number of services necessary for business.
The launch of this platform took place back in 2018 in order to simplify the work of existing and potential SMEs in Armenia. Karen Karamyan, Head of Business Banking Direction at Ameriabank, said this on the sidelines of the DigiTec technology exhibition, answering a question from an ArmInfo correspondent.
In this regard, he noted that so far Ameriabank is the only bank in the financial market of Armenia that gives the opportunity to open online accounts and become its client without visiting the Bank.
"Specificity lies in the fact that opening an account, as such, for a business client is a more complex process, involving bureaucratic procedures. Taking this into account, we tried to make sure that on our platform the client could easily organize all processes in a matter of minutes, and become a client of the Bank by telephone," he said, stressing that this is an unprecedented service.
As Karamyan presented, through this platform the client can use the services of Mobile and Online banking, the relevance of which is currently increasing due to the decrease in cash turnover, which has been fixed by legislative restriction since July 2022.
In addition, customers can order a business card on the Ameria Business platform. "As a result, it turns out that every tenth person becomes a client of the Bank without visiting it, which is extremely important for business, as it allows you to save time that can be spent on developing business processes," the Bank's representative noted. In this regard, Karamyan drew attention to the fact that every second business card is also issued online. In general, he emphasized that 25% of Ameriabank's clients receive online banking services on this platform. "However, we are not limited to this, and we are developing more and more new services, studying international experience and the needs of our clients," Karamyan said.
He said that the Ameria Business platform has been operating for 4 years and is unprecedented. "In a matter of minutes, i.e. no more than 5 minutes, by filling out the relevant application, the client receives an answer. And in the case of an affirmative answer, if the applicant is a client of the Bank, then money is transferred to client's account in a matter of minutes. If the entrepreneur-applicant is not a client of Ameriabank, then in order to receive funds, the applicant needs to visit any of the branches of the Bank," Karamyan explained.
According to him, this service has made great changes in traditional business, as a result of which, entrepreneurs get 7 out of 10 loans at Ameriabank online. "It exceeded our forecasted figure," Karamyan stressed. Speaking about industries, he said that 60% of business loans relate to retail and wholesale trade, 20% to production, etc. He explained that these are unsecured loans, the maximum limit of which is 10 million drams, and interest rates fluctuate in the range from 13% to 19%, depending on the "score" of the borrower.
Regarding the DigiTec exhibition, Karamyan noted that as part of his participation, he presented the Bank's digital services, their development trends over the past few years, as well as Ameriabank's services for SMEs to the visitors of the Ameriabank pavilion.
Ameriabank is a leading financial and technology company in Armenia, a major contributor to the Armenian economy, with assets exceeding AMD 1 trillion. In the course of digital transformation, it has launched a number of innovative solutions and platforms going beyond banking-only needs of its diverse customer base, thus creating a dynamically evolving financial technology space. Ameria was the first in Armenia to create ecosystems for both businesses and individuals, which give one-window access to a range of banking and non-banking services, among them - Estate.ameriabank.am, Automarket.ameriabank.am, Sme.ameriabank.am. As a truly customer-centric company, Ameria aims to be a trusted and secure financial technology space with seamless solutions to improve the quality of life.
DigiTec 2023 is an international technology exhibition, which is considered the largest in the region, attracting more than 60,000 visitors and 120 local and foreign companies, including leading companies in the industry. The permanent organizer is the Union of Advanced Technology Companies. Thematic sections of the exhibition are: accounting, banking and financial software; design and testing of microcircuits; computer graphics, multimedia, games; databases and data management systems; production, import and export of computer equipment; internet applications and e-commerce; Internet providers; IT services and consulting, system integration; development of mobile applications; networks and communications; automation; software and programming languages; robotics and web design and development. This year, DigiTec takes place from March 10 to March 12 at the Sports and Concert Complex after Karen Demirchyan.
