CHISINAU (Moldova), January 25 (SeeNews) - Moldovan private commercial

bank FinComBank said on Tuesday its net profit rose to 24.5 million lei ($1.95

million/1.5 million euro) in 2004 up 23.1% on the year, mainly due to branch

network expansion and rise of the client's number in the last year.

"We completely fulfilled our business plan for the last year," Alexandr

Bobarikin, chief of FinComBank's marketing department, told SeeNews.

The bank said in statement its total assets rose to 628.6 million lei in the

last year from 457.5 million lei in 2003. The bank's equity capital stood at

65 million lei at the end of 2004 up from 41.6 million lei in 2003.

FinComBank's return on assets (ROA) inched down to 4.61% in 2004 from 5.24%

in the previous year and return on equity (ROE) stood at 23.67 in the last

year, down from 24.76% in 2003.

The bank's deposit portfolio stood at 428.8 million lei in the last year, up

from 279.7 million lei in 2003. The credit portfolio increased to 393.4

million lei in 2004 up from 304.8 million lei in the previous year.

Bobarikin said that the bank expects to increase its net profit for this

year by 20-25%, the assets rise is seen at 30% on the year.

Among the bank's 2005 targets is also the implementation of new banking

services, such as Internet banking.

The number of FinComBank's clients rose to 36,000 in the last year from

27,540 in 2003. The bank opened two branches and four representative offices

in the different parts of the country in the last year.

FinComBank plans to add three branches and equal number of representative

offices to its network in different regions of Moldova this year. At

present, it has 12 branches in the country, including five in the capital

Chisinau. It also has 12 representative offices around Moldova.

The bank placed to share issues in the last year worth 19.8 million lei in a

bid to fund expansion of its branch network.

FinComBank was established in 1993 as one of Moldova's first commercial

banks. In 2002, it became a member of the Rural Finance and Small

Enterprises Development programme sponsored by International Fund of

Agriculture Development (IFAD). The bank got a $1.5 million loan from the

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private investment

arm, in 2002.

Moldova has 16 commercial banks, including two subsidiaries of foreign

banks. The largest banks of the country in the terms of assets are

Moldagroindbank, Banca de economii and Victoriabank.

SeeNews, 25 January, 2005