Interview of the Regional Manager at Rietumu Bank Elton Chaus to Mediamax and Banks.am portal.

- Mr. Chaus, Rietumu Bank received the status of a representation in Armenia, which, as far as I understand, envisages a registration in legal terms but not a license for banking activity. It is interesting to know in this regard how this status may affect your potential clients in Armenia. In other words, where will they feel that they are serviced in the representation but not in the bank?

- You are right saying that the representation does not have a license for banking activity. There are a number of legal restrictions, but the only tangible difference for simple and ordinary clients is that they won\'t be able to put and withdraw cash in the representation as they would do it in a classical bank.

On the other hand, they can order a payment card and fully use all the card services: withdraw money from ATM machines and pay for purchases. One can put money on a card by transferring money from his account through our operatively functioning internet-bank, which allows making payments from anywhere in the world.

At the same time, the customers will in any case receive high-quality service and answers to all their questions.  We will do our best to make the customer be satisfied with the communication with us, which would lead to a mutually beneficial cooperation in the future.

- How does this status restrict your actions and are you on equal competitive positions with the Armenian banks in this sense?

- I must repeat that Rietumu is not a retail bank. It is specialized in the other segment of the market - maintenance of big business and solvent private individuals. That’s why I would rather say that we differ by our focus on another class of customers. In this context it doesn’t matter whether it\'s a representation of a bank or a classical banking license.

- The co-owner of Rietumu Bank Arkady Sukharenko has recently said that in Armenia the bank may participate in syndicated lending jointly with the Armenian banks. Isn\'t it risky to apply a lending mechanism which is unusual for our market?

- For us, as a modern European bank, the syndicated lending is not an “unusual” mechanism, that\'s why we feel absolutely comfortable about it. In this process, both banks (or more) are partners (a syndicate), and seeking to ensure the best conditions for itself during negotiations, our bank simultaneously provides the same conditions also for other banks - participants and partners of a syndicate.

Thus, there is a group of partner-banks, like creditors united by the same interests, on the one hand, and the borrower on the other.

- Is the representation already open to work with the customers? By the way, how many employees do you have here and are there Latvian specialists among them?

- The representation works from mid-November. The head of the representation, Hovanes Grigoryan, as well as the Office Manager are always in the office. I am the Regional Manager in Armenia and regularly visit Yerevan several times a year.

Using this occasion, I would like to say that our representation is located on the third floor of Piazza Grande Business Center (10 Vazgen Sargsyan Str.) and our doors are always open for potential clients.

Khoren Ormanyan talked to Elton Chaus