YEREVAN, MARCH 20, NOYAN TAPAN. After 7 years of successful activities, Unibank continues its growth process. In 2008 the bank strengthened its positions in Armenia's deposit and crediting markets: Unibank was in second place in the mortgage sector and in first place in terms of attraction of natural persons' deposits, while more than 50% of remittances to Armenia is transferred through Unibank. Gagik Zakarian - chairman of Unibank's board and chairman of the bank's founder - Uniastrum Bank (Russia) stated this at the March 19 press conference. He said that in February 2009 the capital of Unibank was replenished by nearly 10 million USD (3 billion drams), which was conditioned by the fact that there is demand for credits, especially credits for small and medium business, at the bank so the number of programs in this direction will grow. In the opinion of G. Zakarian, crediting volumes of enterprises engaged in food processing as well as in sectors with potential to replace import will also increase. After the replenishment of the bank's capital, authorized capital of Unibank amounted to 8 billion 599.7 million drams, its overall capital - to 11.5 billion drams. The CEO of Unibank Vardan Atayan said that under an agreement recently signed with Uniastrum Bank, Unibank attracted credit resources of 50 million USD, which were allocated for implementation of crediting programs. The share of natural persons' deposits in overall liabilities made up 62% in late December 2008, and by this index Unibank was in first position in the Armenian banking system. The total amount of natural persons' deposits made 36.6 billion drams, with Unibank taking second place by this index. In 2008 Unibank serviced more than 1.4 million customers. Over half of Armenia's remittances was made by Unisream system. By the 2008 results, the circulation of the system amounted to over 801 million USD. As of December 30, 2008, time deposits of natural persons at Unibank amounted to 32 billion 541 million drams (27% growth in 2008). The bank's assets increased by 49.9% to 68 billion 141 million drams. The overall capital grew by 25.8% to 8 billion 822 million drams. The net profit of the bank amounted to 1 billion 729 million drams, exceeding 5fold the index of the previous year. Unibank's laibilities grew 53.7% to 59 billion 319 million drams in 2008. The credit portfolio increased by 17 billion drams and made 46 billion 691 million drams as of December 30, 2008.

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