OREANDA-NEWS. On April 22, 2009 The Board of the National Bank of Uzbekistan for Foreign Economic Relations (NBU) held a session to discuss the result of the first three months of 2009.

The session said that the number of clients of the bank reached 1.891 million. Consolidated balance of the NBU was 5.577 trillion soums, including off-system turnover 4.227 trillion soums, at the end of the first quarter of 2009.

The bank's credit portfolio made up 2.123 trillion soums as of 1 April 2009. NBU allocated creits for 262 billion soums in the first quarter of 2009, of which 91 billion were directed to small and private businesses. The growth rate made up 35% year-on-year.

NBU selected 216 projects for US499.3 million to finance due to foreign credit lines, of which 215 projects for US490.8 million were approved. The credit sum made up US291.2 million.

The bank emitted 101,100 plastic cards in the reporting period and their total number reached 1.42 million. The bank issued 423,700 plastic cards on so called salary project (30%).

Transactions on plastic cards rose 3.4 times to 75.4 billion soums in the first three months of 2009. The bank installed its 3,865 terminals at 3,541 trade-service points.

As of 1 April 2009, the bank issued 1.8 billion soums as overdraft, which is up 1.8 times year-on-year.