Impexbank, which was purchased by Austria's banking group Raiffeisen International in May, signed Monday an agreement with LenSpetsSMU on long-term cooperation in mortgage lending, which the government hopes will provide a solution for many families looking for apartments amid a booming housing market.
"The agreement stipulates the implementation of a project to grant $100mln in loans for the purchase of apartments at the stage of construction in residential blocks being built by LenSpetsSMU," the bank said in a news release.
Impexbank, whose IFRS total assets increased 35% in 2005 to $1.9 billion, also said it planned to provide lending for the developer's construction projects.
Elmira Tikhonycheva, a deputy Impexbank board chairperson, said mortgages represented a highly important area of the bank's operations and that mortgages for apartments in new residential buildings had been made available at all the bank's branches since April.
"Mortgage lending is the most popular financial instrument among Impexbank clients and we believe that mortgages will account for about 8% of our retail loan portfolio," she said.
Raiffeisen International is a major banking group controlling 16 subsidiary banks and leasing companies in central and eastern Europe. The group is a fully consolidated subsidiary structure of Raiffeisen Centralbank Osterreich, which holds 70% of its common shares with the other 30% of shares in free circulation.
