Early Warning System

Countries

Armenia

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

African Development Bank (AFDB)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Approved

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Voting Date

Sep 27, 2018

Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.

Borrower

AMERIABANK CJSC

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Finance

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Ring Fence

Climate

A financial intermediary is a commercial bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank, sometimes for a specific lending purpose. A "ring fence" is another name for this specific purpose. These funds are then used for lending by the financial intermediary to client companies or individuals.

Investment Type(s)

Loan

The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 46.54 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Currency conversion note:
Bank reported EUR 40 million
Converted using 2018-09-27 exchange rate.

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ FMO website

Updated in EWS Jul 21, 2023

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank's website, the project provides funding to Ameriabank to finance 'green' projects and women and youth MSME customers.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

African Development Bank (AFDB)

Between EUR 25 and 40 million will be used to finance "green" projects of Ameriabank which are in compliance with FMO's Green Master List. Between 0 and EUR 15 million will be used to finance women and youth MSME customers of Ameriabank in line with FMO"s eligibility criteria supporting our impact goal of reducing inequalities.

Financial Intermediary

A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

Ameriabank CJSC (Financial Intermediary)

Private Actor Relationship

A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

There is often limited information publicly available about what development banks are funding through financial intermediaries. In 2021, the Early Warning System partnered with Oxfam International to incorporate information on high-risk projects being funded by financial intermediaries receiving funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Dutch Development Bank (FMO).

The information listed below describes the relationship between the different private actors linked to high-risk sectors and subprojects of IFC and FMO's financial intermediary investments and/or the financial intermediary's parent companies made from 2017 through 2020, including any associated ring fences.

The database, however, does not explicitly or implicitly imply that IFC or FMO have material exposure to or are contractually or legally accountable to the sub-projects financed by their financial intermediaries or the financial intermediary's parent companies. It only shows a seemingly financial relationship among the different private actors, the financial intermediaries, and IFC or FMO.

Private Actors Description

Ameriabank is a privately-owned bank in Armenia offering a wide range of financial and advisory services with a focus on the corporate and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) segments and a leading position in renewable energy. The bank has around 700 employees and USD 1.4bn in assets and branches across the country. Ameriabank is an existing FMO client since 2009.

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No contact information is available at the time of disclosure.