YEREVAN, June 9. / ARKA /. The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has signed a $20m loan agreement with Ameriabank of Armenia. The transaction represents OFID’s largest loan to a local commercial bank in the country.

The loan is granted for a period of 7 years and will be used to finance Armenia’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which account for 35-40% of Armenia's GDP, Ameriabank said in a press release today.

Ameriabank CEO Artak Hanesyan is quoted as saying that the Bank appreciates highly the establishment of new partnerships with OFID.

"Attraction of new financial resources will allow us to increase lending to SMEs and secure long-term financing of this sector. This will in turn contribute to the expansion of their operations, increase their competitiveness, create new jobs and boost the economic development of Armenia," he said.

By expanding its relationship with leading international organizations Ameriabank has attracted so far a total of $320 million in financial resources.

OFID was established in 1976 by OPEC member countries to promote economic and social progress and to provide financial assistance to developing countries.

Ameriabank is a universal bank providing investment, corporate and retail banking services in a comprehensive package of banking solutions. It is the first investment bank in Armenia that has been providing a wide range of innovative banking services since 2007.

The bank’s assets in the first quarter of 2015 declined by 3.5% year-on-year to 385.8 billion drams, liabilities fell by 4.3% to about 342 billion drams; its total capital upped by 3.3% to 43.75 billion drams and credit investments slashed by 11.2% to about 266.7 billion drams. The bank also earned about 1.5 billion drams in net profit, up 1.7% from the same time span of 2014. ($1 – 476.24 drams). -0-