YEREVAN, February 4. /ARKA/. ConverseBank's loan portfolio grew 17% over 2014 to AMD 97 billion, ConverseBank CJSC Executive Director Tigran Davtyan told journalists on Wednesday.

«Although 2014 was a quite hard year for Armenia's banking sector, especially the end of the year, the bank has managed to build up its loan portfolio,» he said.

Davtyan said that unlike other banks, ConverseBank has not lost depositors and even enjoyed growth in deposits.

He voiced regret at the obstacles the ongoing crisis creates for the bank's intention to make its lending policy more aggressive and to invest more financial resources in the economy.

«Unfortunately, the crisis is not over, and 2015 will be a hard year for the banking sector and economy,» he said.

At the same time, the banker said that ConverseBank made its lending policy more conservative to lessen risks and also raised interest rates on loans extended in drams, taking into account volatility at forex market and increase in interests on dram deposits.

He also said that the bank work individually with each of its dollar borrowers, who faced difficulties because of fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.

«We are considering ways of changing repayment schedules and converting these dollar loans into drams,» Davtyan said.

Converse Bank registered in 1993 is owned by an Argentinean businessman of Armenian origin Eduardo Eurnekian (95 percent) and the Armenian Apostolic Church (5 percent).

The bank's assets at the end of 2014 stood at about 150 billion drams; its liabilities - at 126 billion drams, its capital – at 23 billion drams. The bank earned 2.4 billion drams in net profit last year, the fivefold of its profit in 2013. $ 1 - 476.64 drams). -0--