YEREVAN, March 3. /ARKA/. ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank’s credit portfolio reached AMD 90.1 billion by late December 2009 against AMD 82.9 billion by the end of 2008, Stepan Gishyan, executive director general of the bank, said Tuesday at a press conference.

“Our share in Armenian banks’ aggregate credit portfolio is 12.2%,” he said.

Gishyan said that the bank’s credit portfolio will grow.However, he refrained from predicting particular indicators.

He said that the bank traditionally focuses on agriculture – the loans the bank extended to agriculture sector made up 35% of its 2009 credit portfolio against 30% in 2008.

More than 200,000 loans were extended to farmers in 2009.

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%).

ACBA Credit Agricole Bank’s assets, totaling AMD 162.8 billion by December 31, 2009, made the bank the largest asset-holder among Armenian banks.

Its liabilities amounted to AMD 127.3 billion by late December.

Own capital, amounting to AMD 35.4 billion, put ACBA Credit Agricole Bank above other banks in this ranking.

The bank’s authorized capital amounted to 15.7 billion. ACBA Credit Agricole Bank’s net profit of AMD 4.3 billion brought the bank leadership also on this indicator in 2009. The bank runs 35 branches. ($1= AMD 384.54). ---0---