Baitushum and Partners, founded in 1997 as a USAID project to support Kyrgyzstan’s agriculture sector, has been steadily developing new products and services and in 2009 the company achieved the first equity investment in Central Asia.
Now serving around 30,000 customers, Baitushum and Partners transformed itself from a microfinance institution into a licensed bank this year and has very ambitious goals for the future. It aims to increase its loan portfolio from the current €48.8 million (KGS3 billion) to €144.8 million (KGS9 billion) by the end of 2016.
Gulnara Shamshieva, Chairman, explains, “We decided to establish our own bank, diversify our products and services and revise our cost structure to make our products more affordable in order to better serve our customers. In 2011 we became the first micro-financing institution licensed to accept deposits as well as provide loans. Now that we are a licensed bank, we are steadily expanding our product portfolio.” Baitushum and Partners is known for its world-class standards and transparency, and it has the strong support of its institutional shareholders.
The bank focusses primarily on providing loans averaging around €1,522 (US$ 2055) to entrepreneurs in many sectors, although around half of the bank’s business involves the agriculture sector. With the expansion of our loans to small and medium-sized businesses, the average loan amount will increase. Defining the advantages of working with Baitushum and Partners instead of with a standard commercial bank, Gulnara Shamshieva says, “We are more flexible than a big commercial bank and we are willing to serve all kinds of clients, including clients with small businesses in rural areas. We believe that clients like these deserve the same products and services as any customer anywhere.”
New mobile-banking services
Baitushum and Partners has built up a network of seven branches and 27 cash points, and plans to expand this to 11 branches and 44 cash points in 2013. The bank also aims to launch an innovative mobile-banking service. “We want to be much closer to our clients and at the same time we have to manage our operational costs, so we are investing in new IT technology,” Gulnara Shamshieva explains. She adds that the bank is planning to expand a leasing service that will be particularly useful for farmers. She praises the potential of Kyrgyzstan’s private sector and urges international investors and partners to come to the country and see for themselves all the opportunities awaiting them there.
Umetaliev st. 76 – Bishkek
Tel: +996 312 900 464
[email protected]
www.baitushum.kg
