Inecobank and Blue Orchard Microfinance Fund signed a subordinate debt facility agreement in the amount of UDS 15m with a seven-year maturity period on February 7.

“As a leading bank in Armenia in attracting funds from foreign institutions, Inecobank has a highly diversified funding structure both by liabilities and share capital,” said Tigran Davtyan, CEO of Inecobank.

As reported by the bank, the funds attracted will be directed to financing the bank’s overall activities, as well as will contribute to the growth of the bank’s credit portfolio, in particular focusing on the SME segment.

“We highly value our lasting cooperation with Blue Orchard Microfinance Fund, which provides subordinated loan in Armenia for the first time. Such a long-term and productive cooperation with foreign financial institutions comes to testify the high level of trust towards Inecobank, which has been achieved thanks to the bank’s excellent financial performance and the high standards of corporate governance practices at the bank,” added Mr. Davtyan.

The bank added: “A subordinated loan is a more flexible tool that enables to manage the bank’s assets and liabilities, mainly increasing the effectiveness of capital management.

With the involvement of this subordinated loan, Inecobank’s regulatory capital will make up AMD 50 billion, which will improve the position of Inecobank in the market, thus ranking it among the most capitalized banks in Armenia’s banking system.”

Inecobank is one of the leading banks in the South Caucasus, focused on individual customers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations offering a full range of banking services including break through and innovative digital banking solutions. For over 23 years the bank has been providing high quality convenience in Armenia serving more than 400 000 customers and over 150 000 online users.

Throughout the years of operation, Inecobank developed and delivered industry-leading digital banking solutions with the purpose of introducing an entirely new culture of banking services.

- In 2009 the bank was the first in Armenia to offer the digitalized and fully automated “Point of Sale Loan” product, reducing the loan generation time from 3-4 days to a few minutes.

- In 2012, with the introduction of InecoOnline, the bank was one of the first to provide 24/7 banking services to its customers.

- In 2014 the bank launched InecoMobile, its Mobile banking application, which is the most popular banking application in Armenia with over 100,000 users.

- In 2017, the bank was the first to introduce a fully automated consumer lending solution through its mobile and online applications, which generates consumer loans 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

- In 2018, Inecobank was the first banking institution in Armenia to introduce InecoPay, the new cashless payments system.