Opportunity bank approved more than 56m EUR worth of loans to entrepreneurs and SME - consumer loans for citizens soon

- Opportunity bank from Novi Sad has approved approved more than 1000 start-up loans worth about 4m EUR in the last two years - said Executive Operative Manager Vladimir Vukotić.

Vukotić said at the press conference that, since it had been founded in 2002, that bank had approved more than 56m EUR worth of loans to entrepreneurs and SME, 46% of which in 2007 when it had grown from the savings bank into the bank.

He pointed out that those loans had enabled creation of 5,000 new jobs and maintenance of 10,000 existing jobs and added that "Opportunity bank" had been approving loans only to businessmen and not to citizens.

The main offer of this bank intended for citizens is saving, so that it collected about 10m EUR worth of saving deposits, with the interest rate of 7.4% on annual basis, in the last year.

By the end of the year, this bank should start approving consumer loans to citizens and introduce some new products, such as overdraft for business clients, banking guarantees, debit cards, ATMs and money orders.

The Executive Manager of the bank, Stuart White, reminds that that bank was founded in 2002 as a saving bank, and the first donor was US agency USAID, which provided 1m EUR and is now the main partner of the bank.

Since 2001, USAID has granted 11.96m USD to organization "Opportunity International" to found a bank.

The stockholders of the Novi Sad-based bank are "Opportunity Transformation Ivestments", EBRD, Dutch finance institution HMP and Dutch "Oiko Credit".