YEREVAN, September 27. /ARKA/. VTB Bank (Armenia) holds 15% at CIS and Georgia’s retail lending market, Mikhail Zadornov, VTB24 bank president and chairman of the bank’s board, said Thursday during a televised conference involving representatives of VTB Group’s subsidiaries in Armenia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

“Armenia is a flagship country at Russia and other countries’ retail lending market, since VTB Bank (Armenia) holds 15% here,” he said.
He also said that VTB Bank (Armenia) is among leaders in various segments of the market and is ranked second largest retail lender.
Zadornov expressed hope that the bank will “move in the same direction”.
“VTB Group has more than 300,000 retail clients in Armenia,” he said. “This is a large additional client base for the group.”

Yuri Gusev, acting CEO of VTB Bank (Armenia) and the chairman of the bank’s directorial board, on his side, said that the bank is now concentrating its attention on improvement of servicing clients.
“We understand very well that after we and VTB 24 launched simultaneously a new retail lending model we have seized quite a sizeable portion of the market and it is clear now that without quality changes we will not be able to carry on with the same pace,” he said.

Gusev said that quality changes imply reformation of the bank’s branch network.
“This project we are implementing jointly with VTB24, and we plan to re-formate our 20 sale points,” he said adding that the bank will also offer new products.
He said that the bank has already embarked on POS-lending and plans to issue instant cards and develop other directions of consumer lending.
VTB Bank (Armenia) started implementing its POS-lending program in 2011. Now the bank-extended POS loans total 57 million Russian rubles – the bank extended 3,400 loans amounting to 44.5 million rubles in the 1st H 2012 alone.
Gusev singled out enhancement of servicing effectiveness in sale points as one of the bank’s top-priority objectives.

“We are convinced that now clients evaluate banking services not only in money and cost, but also in seconds,” he said. “It is very important to us, and this is one of key directions of our development.”
VTB Bank Armenia joined VTB Group in April 2004. VTB, the second largest bank of Russia, holds 100% of shares of VTB Bank (Armenia). VTB Bank (Armenia) has 69 branches all over Armenia’s territory - the largest branch network in the country. VTB Bank (Armenia) is traditionally reckoned among leaders for general indicators. -0---