IFC to Help Armenia’s Ardshininvestbank Improve Risk Management Practices
In Yerevan:
Narine Hayrapetyan
Phone: +37410 545242
E-mail: NHayrapetyan@ifc.org
ASHIB PR Coordinator:
Astghik Martirosyan
Phone: +37410 590519
E-mail: pr@ashib.am
In Tbilisi:
Tamar Barbakadze
Phone: +995 32 92 3523
E-mail: TBarbakadze@ifc.org
In Moscow:
Nezhdana Bukova
Phone: +7 495 411 7555
E-mail: NBukova@ifc.org
Yerevan, Armenia, October 20, 2009—IFC,
a member of the World Bank Group, signed an advisory services agreement
with Armenia’s Ardshininvestbank to help improve the bank’s risk management
practices and increase lending to smaller businesses.
The agreement is part of IFC’s broader
regional crisis-response initiative focused on strengthening the banking
sector to make it more sustainable.
Ardshininvestbank is among the top three banks in Armenia and has an extensive
branch network. In light of the recent financial crisis, IFC is helping
the bank enhance its capacity to deal with nonperforming loans, mitigate
risks, and strengthen its lending to local entrepreneurs and small and
medium enterprises to stimulate economic development and job creation.
“As a leading Armenian bank, Ardshininvestbank has attached great importance
to risk assessment and management practices since its establishment,”
said Karen Balasanyan, Deputy Chairman of Ardshininvestbank’s Management
Board. “We value very much the cooperation with IFC and are confident
that our clients will notice the impact of advisory services rendered by
IFC experts in the near future.”
Thomas Lubeck, IFC Regional Head of the Caucasus, said, “We are happy
to help one of Armenia’s largest banks address the effects of the global
financial crisis and increase the sustainability of its operations. This
should create additional opportunities for economic growth in the country.”
IFC, the largest multilateral financial institution investing in the private
sector in emerging markets, has launched a broad and targeted set of initiatives
to help private enterprises cope with the global financial and economic
crisis. These initiatives aim to coordinate responses by individual institutions,
catalyze action and investment from other stakeholders, and provide targeted
support through IFC’s investment and advisory services to the sectors
most affected. To learn more, visit www.ifc.org/financialcrisis.
In addition to providing advisory and investment services to individual
clients in Armenia, IFC also organizes seminars to train financial sector
executives and managers in credit risk assessment and analysis to help
ensure that portfolio risk is properly reflected on bank balance sheets.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, creates opportunity for people to
escape poverty and improve their lives. We foster sustainable economic
growth in developing countries by supporting private sector development,
mobilizing private capital, and providing advisory and risk mitigation
services to businesses and governments. Our new investments totaled $14.5
billion in fiscal 2009, helping channel capital into developing countries
during the financial crisis. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
About Ardshininvestbank CJSC
Founded in 2003, Ardshininvestbank is one of the largest and most successful
banks in Armenia, with assets totaling about $320 million as
of the end of June 2009. The bank provides a wide range of financial products
to its corporate and retail clients with a strategic focus on supporting
Armenia’s small and medium enterprise sector. It has 55 branches throughout
the country and an office in Paris. For more information, visit www.ashib.am.
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