CASCADE BANK OF ARMENIA REDUCES BASIC CREDITING RATE FROM 18% DOWN TO 15%

/ARKA/
April 22, 2009
YEREVAN

Cascade Bank of Armenia reduced basic crediting rate from 18% down
to 15%, the bank’s press service reported Tuesday.

According to the report, the reduction is substantial in rates for
dollar credits of up to $50,000, as well as for commercial loans in
Euros: the rates for these are to be 20% and 18% now instead of the
previous 24% and 22% respectively.

Cascade Bank has also changed rates on Dram deposits: such a deposit
holder can receive up to 15.5% p.a.

According to the press release, the bank also improved the "Cascade"
deposit terms: deposit yield is increased every other month and
deposit holder has an opportunity to keep accumulative interest in
case of early repudiation.

Effective policy helped record a satisfactory level of profit by the
end of the first quarter 2009, which shows the clients’ confidence
in the bank, says the press release.

The Cascade Bank CJSC was founded on May 26, 2005, when Cascade
Capital Holding purchased the Emporiki Bank (Armenia) CJSC.

The bank is cooperating with the EBRD on a microcrediting program.

In December 2006, the Millennium Challenges Armenia Fund selected
Cascade Bank for servicing of its account under the 5-year
U.S. Government assistance program for a total of $236mln in Armenia.

According to the preliminary information of ARKA Agency, the
bank’s assets had totaled 13.3bln Drams by the end of March 2009
with liabilities totaling 7.7bln Drams and total capital being
5.6bln Drams; net profit was 40.3mln Drams in January-March
2009. ($1=372.1Drams).