YEREVAN, February 10. /ARKA/. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) is planning a new issuance of bonds in Armenian drams in 2020, President of the bank Dmitry Pankin told reporters on Monday, saying also the bank attaches importance to the issuance of financial instruments in national currencies of member countries.

"Our first issue of bonds in a national currency was in Armenian drams. The funds were used to provide loans to the National Mortgage Company," Pankin said.

He said in view of the successful first placement of bonds in drams, the BSTDB plans to make another issuance of dram bonds in 2020. He said no specific deadline was set yet but the bonds will be issued before the end of this year.

He added that the new issue of bonds in drams may amount to the equivalent of $10-20 million, and the raised funds will again be provided to the National Mortgage Company.

On June 27, 2017, Araratbank placed BSTDB-issued 200,000 dram coupon bonds (BSTBB1) with a total volume of 2 billion drams at Abond Armenia Securities Exchange. The face value of a bond was 10,000 drams, coupon yield - 8.455% and the circulation period -3 years.

The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), an international financial institution with headquarters in Thessaloniki, Greece, was established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

BSTDB started operations in June 1999 and has authorized capital of €3.45 billion. The Bank supports economic development and regional cooperation in the Black Sea Region through trade and project finance lending, guarantees, and equity participation in private enterprises and public entities in the member countries. BSTDB is rated A-/A-2 by Standard & Poor’s, and A2/P1 by Moody's.

Since 1999, the bank has approved funding for 400 programs totaling 6.1 billion euros. In Armenia, the bank began lending in 2004. Between 2004 and 2020 BSTDB concluded 36 credit programs in Armenia in the amount of 241 million euros. Funds provided to financial institutions were used to finance SMEs, mortgage lending and trade finance. ($1 - 478.47 drams). -0-