ACLEDA Bank witnesses decline in deposits, loans

ACLEDA Bank witnesses decline in deposits, loans

ACLEDA Bank Lao Ltd reported recently that loan and deposit account figures have not met the expectations for 2013, as the year came to an end.

The loans granted have declined by about US$26 million while deposits have dropped by about US$12 million.

Bank Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mr NarinPhon, said on Tuesday that the bank had plans to disburse loans of about 920 billion kip (US$115 million) by the end of the year 2013.

“However we were only able to grant about 712 billion kip (US$89 million) in loans to about 17,000 families,” Mr Narin said.

For deposit accounts, the bank had targeted securing about 680 billion kip (US$85 million), but it only managed to reach 584billion kip (US$73 million) among almost40,000 accounts,”he added.

Recently the bank reported that its loans and deposits exceeded initial expectations for the year 2012.Its plan for last year was to provide loans worth about 456 billion kip (US$57 million) and for deposits to reach about 368 billion kip (US$46 million).

In actual fact, loans reached about 532 billion kip (US$66.5 million) by the end of 2012 while deposits rose to about 420 billion kip (US$52.5 million).

Although this year loans and deposits fell short of the plan, the bank still has intentions to continue with its service office expansion plans and also to employ additional staff.

Mr Narin said the bank now has 836 employees working at 41 service offices in Vientiane and the provinces, and it plans to have a total of 1,050 staff by the end of 2014.

“We also plan to open four additional offices in Vientiane province and the capital by the end of this year,” Mr Narin said

ACLEDA bank opened for business in July 2008 and was the first Cambodia-based commercial bank to operate in Laos.

Its shareholders comprise ACLEDA Bank Plc, the International Finance Corporation (operated by the World Bank Group) and Triodos-Doen and Triodos Fair Share Fund, the Netherlands' development finance company.

It recently received a congratulatory certificate from the governmentto certify that ACLEDA Bank Lao is enjoying excellent business operations and has made a significant contribution to economic development over the last five years (2008-2013).

vientiane times