EBRD EARMARKS $118 MILLION TO ARMENIAN BANKS UNDER MULTI-BANK FRAMEWORK FACILITY II PROGRAM
ARKA
March 5, 2010
YEREVAN, March 5. /ARKA/. European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development has earmarked $118 million to Armenian banks under
Multi-Bank Framework Facility II program.
On Thursday, Mike Taylor, the EBRD director on financial institutions
of the Central Asia, Caucasus and Mongolia, speaking at a news
conference in Yerevan, said that the EBRD intended to invest $130
million in Armenia’s banking sector under this program.
The program launched in 2006 is aimed at development of financial
mediation in the country by opening mid-term credit lines for local
commercial banks for commercial lending.
Taylor said that Ameribank is the 13th bank, with which the EBRD has
established cooperation under this program.
On Thursday, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
signed an agreement on $10-million loan for Ameriabank for a joint
financing of mid-size loans extended by Ameriabank to local companies.
Ameriabank will allocate another $10 million from own resources for
implementation of this project.
As a whole, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
has provided over ~@335 million for supporting some 70 projects in
financial, corporate, infrastructural and energy sectors.
The Ameriabank CJSC (former Armimpexbank) was founded in July 1992
using the facilities of the Armenian branch of the USSR Vnesheconombank
(Foreign Economy Bank). On September 8, 1992, the bank received a
banking license from the Central Bank of Armenia.
In August 2007, TDA Holdings limited, affiliated with Troika Dialogue,
Russia’s leading investment company, purchased the bank’s shares.