Nerses Karamanykyan, the new CEO of Armenia's Anelik Bank, recently said that the bank is revising its strategy and putting more emphasis on retail.

Karamanykyan, the former head of Ardshininvestbank and Geoteam, one of the country's largest ore mining companies, said that the bank needs new approaches and solutions in a competitive market.

"Anelik Bank is actually a very well-known and highly reputed bank. Though generally reliable, the bank has recently been quite conservative despite the need for post-crisis revival and higher aggression on the market. I spent the first three months analyzing what actually was going on in the bank and what was preventing it from being profitable, considering what gaps we had and how we could fill them with active work," Karamanykyan said. "The first thing we noticed was the bank's unreasonably high expenses, which sometimes had nothing to do with its activities. Without going into details, I would like to say that by the end of Q4 our balance will be improved due to cuts in some non-interest expenses: we have reduced the wages and bonuses of our top managers to the average bank level and have curtailed our staff."

Karamanykyan, who was appointed after the bank was acquired by Lebanon's CreditBank, also said that it is expanding its ties with international financial organizations.

"Currently we are implementing SME support projects with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and are committed to more actively interact with other organizations under projects concerning SMEs, on renewable energy and power efficiency projects, trade financing," Karamanykyan said. "In these and other sectors, including retail, we are keen to adopt the best international experience our Lebanese shareholder can share with us."