YEREVAN, October 15, /ARKA/. As part of a three-month long initiative to support small and medium-sized companies Armenian Inecobank said it has lowered interest rates from 12% to 9.5%.

In a press release the bank said the amount of lending begins from $100,000 or 80,000 Euros repayable within 3-12 months. The special offer will last until January 1, 2011. Inecobank said also it has halved annual commission for servicing its Aparik+ cards to 1,500 Drams.

The second offer is designed for clients who will sign with the bank the so-called Yearly Debt Payment contract for commercial loans ranging from $100 to $1000.

Inecobank was founded in 1996. The bank’s shareholders include IFC (10 percent shares) and (

Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungesellschaft MBH - 13.5 percent shares, 37.1% is held by Avetis Baloyan and 33.2% by Karen Safarian. Its partners are reputable international organizations such as EBRD, KfW Bankengruppe, the OPEC Fund for International Development, the Asian Development Bank and USAID.

At the end of June, 2010 it had 46.9 billion Drams worth total assets, its liabilities stood at 35.2 billion Drams, credit investments stood at 31.9 billion Drams and the amount of deposits was 15.9 billion Drams. It earned a total of one billion Drams in the first half in net profit. The bank has 10 branches. ($1- 361.18 Drams). -0-