20th anniversary of FINCA Kyrgyzstan

This year FINCA Kyrgyzstan celebrates its 20th anniversary. For less than a quarter of a century, the microfinancial organization managed to grow into one of large commercial banks with the developed network of branches providing a wide range of financial services. Today FINCA Bank has 72 service outlets in all the regions of Kyrgyzstan. By this moment, more than 115 thousand clients have chosen FINCA Bank as their financial partner.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of FINCA Kyrgyzstan, the top management of FINCA has arrived. The visitors included: the President of FINCA International and Co-CEO of the FINCA Microfinance Holding Company Rupert Scofield, the Co-CEO of the FINCA Microfinance Holding Company Andrée Simon and Regional Director for Eurasia Jeff Flowers.

At a meeting with the representatives of mass media, the top officials of FINCA spoke of the results of 20 years of FINCA’s activity in Kyrgyzstan and shared their future plans of FINCA Bank’s work.

As Rupert Scofield said, in 1995, FINCA Kyrgyzstan was founded as a lending program for low-income entrepreneurs.

“In mid-1990s, when we came to the financial market of Kyrgyzstan, we were one of the few first microfinancial organizations. We started working actively, and our work proved to be successful. The evidence is the development of economy and the stories of thousands people who managed to start their own business. Currently FINCA Bank promotes business start-up both in large cities and in remote villages. It has always been our mission – to help people who? Due to their hard work, ensure the prosperity of their business”, Rupert Scofield said.

Besides, Rupert Scofield expressed his gratitude to the team of the FINCA Bank in Kyrgyzstan for providing efficient functioning of the bank.

“I am grateful to the FINCA Bank team, they have done fantastic work. Having deep understanding of social and economic problems existing in the country, we feel optimistic about the future and we are ready for long-term confidential relationships with the clients. We adapt the best banking practices in Kyrgyzstan”, he said.

Co-CEO of the FINCA Microfinance Holding Company Andrée Simon emphasized the necessity to improve the high-technology management within the bank.

According to her words, maintaining banking technologies up-to date is being achieved by continuous modernization of the equipment and introduction of innovations.

“FINCA Bank Kyrgyzstan remains to be the ray of sunlight in our network, due to continuous improvement of interaction with the clients and transformation of the working process. The banking system is changing dynamically, and, in order to be able to meet the contemporary challenges, FINCA is at the forefront of implementation of modern technologies”, she says.

Regional Director for Eurasia Jeff Flowers expressed his gratitude to a number of shareholders and lenders, promoting development of microfinancing in Kyrgyzstan, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), German Development Bank ( KFW), Triodos Bank and Triple Jump.

“We have stable partnerships with investors and shareholders. We are sure that we will continue our fruitful cooperation in the future”, he emphasized responding to the journalist’s question if there are any difficulties related to attracting investments in the context of financial crisis.

Chairperson of the Management Board of FINCA Bank Margarita Cherikbaeva emphasized that in 2015, as the result of a number of transformations FINCA Kyrgyzstan obtained a banking license. A wide range of modern banking products and services has been created in order to satisfy the needs of customers of FINCA Bank.

“In general, we intend to develop in three principal directions: intensification of our presence by means of expanding the branch network and development of infrastructure, strengthening the product line focused on the clients’ needs and third, human resource development”, Margarita Cherikbaeva concluded. She emphasized that professionalism, responsibility and diligence are the main features of a modern bank employee.

Margarita Cherikbaeva drew attention to the fact that today it’s very important to keep up the speed of financing for small and medium enterprises, keep the confidence of the depositors, consistently improve the level of reliability and social responsibility of the bank, strengthen the financial literacy. The financial literacy program was launched in 2012, and it has been implemented successfully for the past four years. This initiative is a sustainable platform for the social growth of the clients.

Besides, FINCA Bank holds events of public importance, supporting the practice of social responsibility within the country. The Bank provides active support to pre-school educational institutions, schools, universities and colleges, local communities; it takes care of the elder generation of the country. FINCA Bank supports the projects directed at the implementation of its mission and strategy of promoting the stable development of the country.

Margarita Cherikbaeva shared the success history: "Today we have gathered on a special occasion - the 20th anniversary of FINCA Kyrgyzstan. We started working as a small company, but 20 years passed and we have grown up from a small team into one of large banks with an impressive loan portfolio. Besides, FINCA Bank is the largest employer in the country – 1142 people work in our branches and savings bank offices located in every corner of the country".

In the conclusion, the speakers emphasized that they would put every effort to enable FINCA Bank to continue a universal bank complying with all the requirements of the fast-emerging Kyrgyz market of banking services.

For reference: The Headquarters of FINCA is situated in Washington, DC. FINCA serves 1.8 million clients in its 23 subsidiaries throughout the world. It is among the companies having the widest and comprehensive reach at the market among the existing microfinancial networks.

www.finca.kg