YEREVAN, December 12. /ARKA/. Loans extended by “Areximbank – Gasprombank Group” closed joint stock company to small and medium enterprises (SME) grew over the last two years from 3,800mln to 7,400mln drams, said head of SME credit department of the bank Martin Torosyan.

Usually, when economic crisis is escalating, banks toughen their lending rules to reduce risks.
But now the situation has changed, and SME financing started developing again, Torosyan said.
Torosyan also mentioned that SME is a priority segment for the bank, as small and medium enterprises are the back bone of any economy.

Areximbank-Gazprombank Group closed joint-stock company was founded in 1998 to support entrepreneurs and to handle financial flows between Russia and Armenia. Since 2007 the bank has been a daughter company of the Russian Gazprombank. The bank was granted ISO 9001:2008 international certificate of compliance. It has 16 branch offices, 9 of them in 9 regions of Armenia and 7 in Yerevan. ($1=407.13drams). –0–