site.btaUniCredit Bulbank CEO Hampartzoumian: "Corpbank's Departure Will Have Favourable Economic Impact"

UniCredit Bulbank CEO Hampartzoumian:
"Corpbank's Departure Will Have Favourable
Economic Impact"


Sofia, November 25 (BTA) - UniCredit Bulbank CEO Levon
Hampartzoumian said the departure of Corporate Commercial Bank
(Corpbank) from the market would have a positive effect on the
economy.

Hampartzoumian, who is also Chairman of the Association of Banks
in Bulgaria, moderated the second annual conference on "Banks
and Business" on Tuesday.

"Corpbank distorted the market in more than one way. I have good
reason to assume that business at that bank was completely
divorced from good banking practices," said Hampartzoumian. The
credit market will improve after the Corpbank case according to
him.

Chavdar Zlatev, member of the Management Board of First
Investment Bank (Fibank), said Fibank was the target of a
criminal attack in late June but coped with it. The bank has a
restructuring plan and official information as to how this will
happen is expected on Tuesday. The plan has been approved by the
European Commission, said Zlatev.

Maria Rousseva, Deputy Chair of the Management Board of Societe
Generale Expressbank, and Dobromir Dobrev, Member of the
Management Board of Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria, said they expected
deposit interest rates to fall in 2015. Corpbank aside, deposits
in all other banks increased by 5 billion leva this year,
participants in the conference said.

This means that individuals and businesses trust banks. The
increase in deposits causes a yield-related problem to banks
because they cannot absorb this deposit growth in credits. The
main problem facing the banking sector is to deal with the
public's sense of insecurity, which is a deterrent to credit
demand.

Rousseva said credit was expected to grow 4 per cent in 2015.
Analysts at Societe Generale Expressbank have concluded that
political stability has increased, and have forecast GDP
growth, a drop in unemployment, and low inflation in place of
this year's deflation in 2015. Bankers say the real estate
market has bottomed out and there are signs of rising property
prices in some market segments. PK/DD

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