YEREVAN, March 2. /ARKA/. ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank’s profit amounted to AMD 4.254 billion in 2009, Stepan Gishyan, executive director general of the bank, said Tuesday at a press conference.

He said that the bank’s share in Armenian banks’ aggregate profits was 49.6% in 2009. Gishyan said that despite the global crisis, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank hasn’t stopped lending money to its clients.

“As a whole, this policy has produced effect – we had quite high indicators in 2009,” he said.

The banker also said that in 2009 ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank is the leader among Armenian banks on key indicators.

The bank’s assets exceeded AMD 162 billion by late December 2009 after growing 31.6% over that year.

Gishyan said that the bank’s capital grew 34.8% to AMD 35 billion.

ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank’s total liabilities amounted to AMD 127 billion by late December and made up 12.1% of Armenian banks’ aggregate liabilities.

The bank’s credit portfolio reached AMD 90 billion (12.2% of banks’ aggregate credit portfolio).

The share of bank’s assets in Armenian banks’ aggregate assets was 12.3% and own capital 12.7%.

Speaking about plans for the future, Gishyan said that the bank started 2010 successfully.

“The economy has already made some rally, compared with the same period a year earlier, and we intensified our lending in all directions,” he said. “We hope that things will become better in 2010 than they were in 2009. The stabilization signs seen in the first two months of this year give us ground for hope.”

ACBA Credit Agricole Bank was established in 1995 with the support of TACIS program. Its major shareholders are the French Credit Agricole Group (15.56%), SACAM International (12.44%) and Farmers Mutual Assistance unions of ten provinces, including Armavir (14.08%) and Ararat (12.28%). The bank runs 35 branches. -0---