ArmInfo. The acquisition of another major player of the market by one of the largest banks of Armenia, Ardshinbank, in the autumn of last year - "Areximbank - GPB Group" became a significant transaction for the banking sector and for the entire Armenian economy as a whole. This was stated in the interview with ArmInfo correspondent by the financial director of Ardshinbank, ex-Minister of Finance of Armenia David Sargsyan.
The sign of this acquisition, according to the expert, is that a purely Armenian bank acquired the subsidiary structure of a large international institutional player - the Russian Gazprombank, whose assets significantly exceed the volume of Armenia's GDP. Justifying his point of view, Sargsyan cited an example from international practice: "If you look at, for example, the history of Lebanon, the Middle East country, in fact the financial center of the region, you will notice that the two largest local banks, such as Bank of Audi and Byblos Bank, reached the international level and have become international structures due to the fact of the national subsidiaries of such world giants as ABN AMRO, Citibank, etc., who left for various reasons, including due to their insufficient effectiveness, purchased the Lebanese market. This is where the Lebanese banks began to build their reputation". On the other hand, the expert noted that due to the purchase of Areximbank-GPB Group, Ardshinbank significantly expanded its presence in the country's regions, diversified its portfolios, expanded its clientele: "As you know, Areximbank was very successful in the market of bank cards, being a pioneer of the banking system In this segment. The first local VISA cards were released by Areximbank. As a consequence, we have doubled the number of ATMs and tripled the number of POS terminals. The reliability of our card products has increased, because now we are working through two processing centers - local national ArCa and Russian, which in turn reduces to zero the risks associated with possible failures in servicing Ardshinbank cards.
Agreeing with the opinion that when buying a Russian subsidiary, the shareholders of Ardshinbank, figuratively speaking, looked not at the balance, but at the client base and its infrastructure, Sargsyan stressed that Areximbank had good retail and mortgage portfolios. "We do not doubt that Areximbank's former clients will be satisfied with our services and will remain with us. A few months have passed, but no former client of Areximbank has so far refused to give up on us. We understand this responsibility, and we will continue to work to improve the client-orientedness of the bank and the level of customer loyalty. Today, at some points of our presence, we are taking measures to optimize and improve the effectiveness of this presence. This does not mean that we will close any branches of Areximbank where Ardshinbank is present. To assess the effectiveness and measures to improve it, the approach will be. Now we are waiting for the audit report on the combined balance sheet and proceed to the next steps, which I will not say for now", said the financial director of Ardshinbank.
Sargsyan did not disclose the parentheses about the new strategic development program for the already merged bank. "No, until I disclose them. I will only say that our bank will remain one of the main creditors of big business in Armenia. For the time being, we are holding, and we hope to keep the first place in retail lending, in the mortgage segment, in the card market, both in quantity and volume, and in infrastructure. With the purchase of Areximbank, we significantly strengthened our retail direction. But, at the same time, we will define measures to increase mutual loyalty in relation to SMEs by offering the best solutions on the market and products, creating the most comfortable conditions for small and medium businesses in these difficult times. This will concern not only the rates, but importantly, the urgency of the loans to reduce the debt burden. For this, we have quite inexpensive and long-term resources", he stressed.