Head of HSBC bank approves reverting to floating exchange rate policy

YEREVAN, March 10. /ARKA/. HSBC Bank Armenia Chief Executive Officer
Tim Slater believes floating exchange rate policy will have a positive
influence on the country’s economy.

On March 3, the Central Bank of Armenia announced the decision of the
CBA Board to revert to floating exchange rate policy due to worsening
trade conditions under the global financial and economic crisis, as
well as due to slowing down capital inflow. CBA experts believe that
the USD average exchange rate will be 360-380 AMD/$1 this year.

He told reporters this will facilitate recovery of the country’s
economy. Touching upon the influence of devaluation of the Armenian
dram on HSBC Bank Armenia, he said that it will certainly lead to more
expenses, but it is the result of the bank’s policy to create most
favorable conditions for its clients.

Slater noted the clients of HSBC Bank were able to convert their means
to dollars at any time and use them. He stated these are the expenses
the banks is ready to make for creating more favorable conditions for
its clients for enjoying the services of the banking system.

HSBC Bank Armenia closed joint stock company ` a daughter bank of HSBC
Banl plc ` was registered on September 25 1995. HSBC Bank plc holds 70%
of the shares of HSBC Bank Armenia with the remaining 30% belonging to
foreign Armenian investors.

By the end of December 2008, the bank’s assets had totaled 121.8bln
drams, capital 15.5bln drams. The bank’s pretax profit was 5bln drams
in January-December 2008 and balance sheet profit was 12.7bln drams.
Credit investments by the bank were 74bln drams on December 31 2008 as
compared with 51.7bln drams in the beginning of 2008. Currently the
bank has ten branches.

According to the information of ARKA Agency, HSBC Bank Armenia is among
the leaders in terms of basic banking activity indicators.
Particularly, the bank has the second largest assets and is the leader
in terms of liabilities and aggregate deposits from clients. The bank
ranks fifth in terms of total capital and has the third largest profit
among Armenia’s banks in January-September 2008. ($1 ` 360.67AMD). G.
S. `0–