Yerevan, September 29 /Mediamax/. “Norvik” credit organization, with authorized capital stock of $500 thousands, started functioning in Yerevan. Norvik is the subsidiary financial institution of the Latvian-Icelandic “LATEKO BANKA” JSC.

As Mediamax was told in the press service of the company, starting from 2007, Norvik plans to invest in Armenia $10-20mln annually, “and the transformation of the credit company into a bank with an authorized capital of $5mln - is not an issue of a very far future”.

According to the Chairman of the LATEKO BANKA Andrei Svirchenkov, the Armenian market is ripe for introduction of modern technologies for consumer lending, mortgages, business loans and development of consumer non-cash settlements (payment cards):

“In Yerevan we can offer not only well-tested technologies and mass-market banking products, but also a system for management of risks in issuing loans. We have carefully analyzed the situation and believe that the state creates quite weighty guarantees for lenders, the guarantees that allow securing the issued loans and repayment of investments. We are ready to offer the organization of syndicated loans for business entities, especially in the area of production, high technologies, extraction of minerals, in which Armenia is so rich. In these syndicates may participate both Latvian and European banks, as well as representative offices of foreign banks based in Yerevan”, Andrei Svirchenkov stated.

The Vice-President of the LATEKO BANKA Vahram Kamalyan thinks that the Armenian market is quite promising for development of the banking sector and direct foreign investments.

“Armenia and Latvia, when they were a part of the Soviet Union, were comparable both in terms of the number of population and the gross domestic product. Therefore, the contacts between bank employees in our countries have been traditionally close, and organization of the banking sectors had a lot in common”, Kamalyan said.

LATEKO BANKA functions on the Latvian and the international markets since 1992. In 2005, “The Banker” magazine declared it to be the best bank in Latvia.

Tigran Bostanjyan is appointed the Head of Norvik. He is a specialist having an extensive work experience in the Central Bank of Armenia, as well as in private and international financial institutions.