In 2014 VTB Bank (Armenia) will keep increasing its advantages in the market of domestic and international factoring by using VTB Group's capacities as a priority. Hasmik Rafaelyan, Head of the Banking Products and Corporate Business Methodology Division at VTB Bank (Armenia), has told ArmInfo's correspondent that having taken a decision to develop international factoring in early 2013 the Bank was going to take the lead in international factoring operations in Armenia. At the yearend 2013, this gave tangible results - almost a 7-fold growth in the portfolio and a position in the top three.
"Though international factoring as a banking product is becoming more and more popular with every passing year, the factoring market is developing in Armenia mostly due to domestic factoring, and international factoring has not been in big demand until very recently", she says.
She added that in 2013 the Bank did large-scale work to improve the range of factoring services. It launched new agreements, operation schemes and factoring products. In particular, together with its colleagues from VTB Factoring, which is a member of VTB Group, the Bank worked out and made the first deal of international factoring.
Along with it, in early 2013, VTB Bank (Armenia) launched a new financial service - Financial Leasing. Throughout the year the Bank took a number of measures to enhance the popularity of the service. The corporate clients of the Bank were informed of the advantages of the product, and the main advantage was the lack of security requirement. "In 2014 the Bank is going to further promote the product and create a high quality and steadily growing leasing portfolio. To expand the business and conduct leasing operations with foreign partners, the Bank also intends to expand cooperation with VTB Leasing OJSC, which is one of the largest leasing companies in the CIS", says Rafaelyan.
According to the Express Ranking of Armenian Banks prepared by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo), VTB Bank (Armenia) was in the lead in lending throughout 2013. As of 1 Jan 2014, the Bank's lending amounted to 217.2 billion AMD, 38.2% more than in 2012. The activeness in the lending market allowed the Bank to increase the revenues of the balance sheet by 36.7% to 38.3 bln AMD in 2013 and this was the highest index in the banking system of Armenia. This gave the Bank an opportunity to increase its net profit by 28% to 4.9 bln AMD. As a result, the accumulated profit totaled 18.3 bln AMD (46.4% y-o-y growth, 3rd position in the banking system).
To note, as of 1 Jan 2014, the total capital of VTB Bank (Armenia) amounted to 37.5 bln AMD (23.8% y- o-y growth), while the authorized capital remained unchanged at 13.8 bln AMD.
VTB Bank (Armenia) joined VTB Group in Apr 2004 and is fully owned by VTB Bank OJSC, the second biggest bank in Russia. VTB Bank (Armenia) is one of the leaders of Armenia's banking sector. It has the largest branch network - 67 branches all over the country.