YEREVAN, March 14. / ARKA /. The Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) that opened its office in Armenia last year, expects its overall loan portfolio to grow this year by 15.8% from the last year to 1 trillion 280 billion rubles. Speaking to reporters in Moscow, its chief executive officer Dmitry Patrushev said last year its loan portfolio grew by 16% to 1 trillion 105 billion rubles, RBC reports.
The office of the bank was registered in Armenia by its Central bank last October. The opening of the office in Yerevan was said to become the first step in establishing cooperation with between the bank and Armenia in the field of agriculture.
Patrushev said this year the bank will continue to focus on lending to agriculture, wood processing enterprises and fisheries. Last year these sectors received 385 billion rubles in loans.
“We are constantly monitoring the quality of our loan portfolio. Last year we built up about 25 billion rubles in reserves. This suggests that our approach to lending is based on risk assessment. In 2011 this figure was roughly the same and we do not think it is going to change this year either,” he said.
The Russian Agricultural Bank, created in 2000, is fully government-owned. It is the fourth largest bank in Russia in terms of assets and capital and runs the second-largest regional network of more then 1.6 thousand points of sale. -0-
