DUSHANBE, March 6, 2009, Asia-Plus — The volume of loan portfolio of open joint-stock company (OJSC) Agroinvestbonk fell some 13 percent in five months to March 1, 2009. As of March 1, 2009, Agroinvestbonk’s loan portfolio has amounted to 501 million somoni, while of September 30, 2008, it had amounted to 573 million somoni, the head of the Agroinvestbonk analytical department Jalil Tavakkalov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“Since the beginning of this year, the bank has provided 47 million somoni in loans, including 25.4 million somoni provided in microloans,” said Tavakkalov, “In the meantime, over the first two months of 2008, Agroinvestbonk had provided 196 million somoni in loans, including 50 million somoni allocated by the government for crediting the cotton sector.”
He attributed a decline in the loan portfolio volumes to effects of the global financial crisis. “Foreign financial institutions that were providing short-term loans to us have reduced the loan volumes because of the financial crisis,” said Tavakkalov. “These financial institutions are mainly based in Europe as well as in Russia and Kazakhstan that were faced with financial shortages before us. However, the bank administration is conducting negotiations with foreign partners and they have already begun increasing volumes of allocations for us.” He expressed hope that the bank would increase lending volumes starting from April.
According to him, one of the immediate tasks of the bank today is to keep cash position, in other words, to opportunely fulfill its obligations to the customers.
Tavakkalov further added that as of March 1, 2009, the total amount of deposits at Agroinvestbonk had been 446 million somoni, which was 25 million somoni more compared to September 2008. He noted that the bank now had interbank reserves for 146 million somoni and another 40 million US dollars were expected to come from foreign partner banks.
Founded in 1992, Agroinvestbonk, with headquarters in Dushanbe, has main branches in Khorog, Khujand, Kulob and Qurghon Teppa and 61 other branches across the republic.
