Yerevan, January 11 /Mediamax/. By the end of the year “Areximbank” will be renamed to “Gazprombank-Armenia”.

Mediamax reports that first Vice-President of “Gazprombank” OJSC Olga Kazanskaya said this in Yerevan today. She noted that the experience of “Gazprombank” will be useful for the development of the Armenian financial market.

General Director of “Areximbank” Armen Khandkarian informed that the deal on sale of 80% shares of the bank to “Gazprombank” “was conditioned by the necessity of arrival of strong banks in the Armenian market, since Armenia has customers, needing the services of such players”.

“The disadvantage of Armenian banks is that they are all small and incapable of providing services to major customers. With the arrival of “Gazprombank” in the Armenian market, the situation will change”, Armen Khandkarian stated.

“But this does not mean that “Areximbank” will only provide services to major corporate customers, we will continue providing a wide spectrum of services in the sphere of retail maintenance, in particular, in the mortgage market”, Armen Khandkarian stated.

He noted that, being the twelfth bank in Armenia as to the volume of its assets, due to this deal “Areximbank” has all the perquisites for entering the list of three leaders very soon in the banking sector of Armenia.

Olga Kazanskaya noted that “Gazprombank” is one of the leaders of the Russian market as to providing investment banking services, issuing plastic cards, as to the presence in the capital market and organization of IPO. “Gazprombank” enters the list of three largest Russian banks, occupying the third place as to the volume of capital among the largest banks of the Central and Eastern Europe.

The assets of “Gazprombank” in 2007 made $51.8bln. The total capital of the bank in the accounting period made $7,2bln. The net income of the bank in 2007 increased for 28% and made $452mln.

The assets of “Areximbank” as of 01.01.08 made $68.5mln, the commitments - $54mln, the credit portfolio - $33mln, the capital - $11.5mln, profit before taxation - $1.5mln.