Ameriabank expects its loan portfolio to surge by 17 percent this year to total of $550 million

YEREVAN, September 17. / ARKA /. Ameriabank expects its loan portfolio to surge this year by 17 percent or around $90 million to the total of $550 million, Gagik Sahakyan, the bank’s director for corporate customers, told a news conference today.

He said this past August Ameriabank had got over a watershed raising its loan portfolio over 200 billion drams, which is the equivalent of about $500 million, which he described as ‘a very strong indication."

He recalled that in 2013 the bank’s loan portfolio was $460 million, adding also that as of September this year, it had recorded an increase of $45 million from the beginning of the year. He singled out that about 80 percent of the portfolio or $430 million, were corporate lending.

"Since the beginning of the year the lending to small and medium-sized businesses, which is part of the  corporate package, has grown by 29.4 percent and we expect it to grow further over 40% before the end of the year,” he said, adding  that lending to large business in the first seven months of this year grew by  13.2 percent.

Ameriabank is a universal bank that provides investment, corporate and retail banking services in the form of a comprehensive package of banking solutions. It  is the first investment bank in Armenia that has been providing a wide range of innovative banking services since 2007.

The bank's assets as of July 1, 2014 amounted to 342.7 billion drams (an 8.8% growth from the beginning of the year), its  liabilities stood at 302.5 billion drams (up 9.48%), the capital – at 40.2 billion. drams (up 3.9%). The bank earned 2.8 billion drams in profit in the first half (the second largest among local commercial banks). ($ 1 - 408.84 drams). -0--