Agricultural Cooperative Bank of Armenia (ACBA)-Credit Agricole Bank, the Armenian subsidiary of France-based Groupe Credit Agricole, recently borrowed local currency equivalent to USD 10 million from the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a Luxembourg-domiciled public-private partnership, which is expected to enable at least 3,000 more loans to be distributed in local currency to Armenian enterprises.
The goal of ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank is to “support the development and growth of the [small and medium-sized enterprises] in Armenia” including provide “innovative and efficient financial solutions with strong focus on rural communities.” These solutions include savings accounts; money transfers; foreign-currency exchange; and loans for commercial, agricultural, education, consumer, housing and other purposes. As of 2018, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank has 59 branches. According to its 2017 annual report, it had total assets of USD 311 million, a credit portfolio of USD 176 million and a deposit portfolio of USD 167 million, and it served 306,340 customers.
Groupe Credit Agricole has 139,000 employees serving 59 million customers in 49 countries. As of 2018, the group reported total assets of EUR 1.6 trillion (USD 1.8 trillion).
German development bank Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) founded EFSE in 2005 with the assistance of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (also known by its German acronym BMZ) and the European Commission. As of January 2019, the fund has EUR 897 million (USD 1.0 billion) outstanding to retail lenders, which have on-lent those funds to 140,000 end-borrowers in the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, the Ukraine and Turkey. As of 2019, EFSE holds a microfinance label from the Luxembourg Fund Labeling Agency (LuxFLAG), an NGO that certifies that social investment vehicles actually invest as advertised.
Research Associate, Tiannah Steele
Sources and Additional Resources
EFSE press release
https://www.efse.lu/news-events/news/detail/efse-and-acba-credit-agricole-bank-expand-financing-for-micro-and-small-enterprises-in-armenia/
ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank homepage
https://www.acba.am/en
ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank 2017 Annual Report
https://www.acba.am/files/Annual%20Report%202017_09.10.2018_WEB.pdf
Credit Agricole Group financial reports
https://www.credit-agricole.com/finance/finance/publications-financieres#
EFSE homepage
https://www.efse.lu/
EFSE facts and figures
https://www.efse.lu/about-the-fund/facts-and-figures/
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EFSE Invests $9m in Kredobank Bond Issue for Small, Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Lending in Ukraine
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-efse-invests-9m-in-kredobank-bond-issue-for-small-medium-sized-enterprise-sme-lending-in-ukraine/
Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
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