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Aizkraukles bank and Hipotēku bank sign an agreement on implementation of small and medium enterprises lending programmeToday, on July 15, Chairman of Hipotēku bank Board Inesis Feiferis and Vice Chairman of Aizkraukles bank Board Oļegs Fiļs sign an agreement between both banks on implementation of small and medium enterprises lending programme. By this agreement, Aizkraukles bank undertakes to implement the Small and medium enterprises lending programme, while Hipotēku bank (Mortgage and Land bank of Latvia) shall provide Aizkraukles bank with funds required for implementation of the programme. Currently the applicable amount under the programme is 10 million Euros.
Aizkraukles Bank shall grant loans under this programme to enterprises registered in Latvia as well as new ones to be established in Latvia for funding investments and working capital. Working capital may be financed, not exceeding 40% of all investments costs. The agreement sets a restriction that a loan per borrower may not exceed one million euro, as well as identifies a range of areas to which the programme is inapplicable, to include operations with real estate - loans for purchase or construction of property with the intent to sell it. Chairman of Hipotēku bank Board Inesis Feiferis believes that the agreement between the national bank and a commercial bank is essential to enhancement of business environment development. „Although the amount earmarked for the programme is not large, the important thing is that commercial banks are getting increasingly involved in financing small and medium enterprises." Vice Chairman of Aizkraukles bank Board Oļegs Fiļs remarks that "the agreement signed today is the result of years of successful cooperation. The document has no deadline set, therefore it may be regarded as a cornerstone to development of further mutually gainful relations. The banks have agreed on cooperation principles and tasks to be accomplished for improvement of the business environment in Latvia." JSC "Aizkraukles bank" is 100% Latvian owners', with operations both in Latvian as well as foreign markets. Subsidiaries of Aizkraukles bank provide brokerage and asset management services. The assets of Aizkraukles bank exceeded one billion lats as of 30 June 2008, and its profit for six months of this year reached 12.6 million lats. Hipotēku bank is the only state-owned bank in the Baltic countries. The priority of Hipotēku bank is support to small and medium entrepreneurs and promotion of economic activity in all regions of Latvia by cooperation with private commercial banks. The following subsidiaries operate within Hipotēku bank group: Hipolīzings (Hipoleasing), HipoNIA (Real Estate Agency of Mortgage Bank), Hipo Fondi and Riska investīciju sabiedrība (Risk Investment Company).
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