YEREVAN, January 26, /ARKA/. In an interview with ARKA news agency, Samvel Chzmachian, chairman of Anelik Bank, assessed positively a recent cooperation agreement signed with Lebanese Credit Bank, which bought 51% of its shares in 2009 summer. As a result Anelik Bank’s capital grew to 15 billion Drams.

Samvel Chzmachian said they were working now to consolidate their relationships and approaches with the focus on deepening mutual understanding.

“This is very important because I have always believed that relationships between people, both at work and in life are key to achieving success in business,’ he said.

According to him, despite the heavy fallout from the global economic crisis that hit Armenia severely rebounding also on the banking system, Armenian banks moved a step forward.

Their main problem, he said, is the outstanding credits which triggered a big percentage of defaulted payments. In comments on 2009 performance indices, he said Anelik Bank’s assets rose last year from 36 billion Drams in 2008 to 49 billion Drams ( 45% growth) and credit investments rose from 19.3 billion Drams to 24.5 billion Drams (27% growth), investments in securities rose by 71%, from 1.4 billion Drams in 2008 to 2.4 billion Drams in 2009. The bank’s equity capital rose from 5.6 billion Drams to 15 billion Drams. Time individual deposits rose by 10%, from 6.7 billion Drams to 7.4 billion Drams and its net profits totaled a 101 million Drams, down from 470 million Drams in 2008.

Last year the amount of individual remittances through Anelik Bank contracted by almost 40 percent, down from 1.6 billion Drams in 2008 to a little over 1 billion Drams. The drop was due to global financial and economic crisis. Anelik Bank money transfer system operates in about 100 countries with 200 banks and 63,000 agent offices.

He declined to comment on Dram’s possible behavior this year saying there is no one who could give an correct answer. “I would paraphrase your question by asking would I like the Armenian Dram to gain strength and trade at 330 Drams per one USD? When it depreciated all banks sustained serious losses and all would like to regain them.

We received funds from our partners in USD, converted them to Dram and lost,’ he said. He also said Anelik Bank was considering some joint projects with its major partner, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), hoping to get a $20 million from it this year and would seek also to get a loan from KfW, its another longtime partner. Anelik Bank was founded in 1990. Some 51% is owned by Lebanese CreditBank S.A.L., Samvel Chzmanian owns 12.25%, Arthur Arakelian- 12.25%, Armen Kazarian -12,25% and Galina Voronina-12.25%.

At the end of 2009 its assets stood at 49 billion Drams, liabilities at 33.8 billion Drams, the aggregate capital at 15.3 billion Drams, credit investments at 24.4 billion Drams, liabilities toward clients-15.2 billion Drams and net profit 101.2 million Drams. It has 10 branches. ($1-377. 75 Drams. -0-