The session said the number of clients rose from 1.52 million in the end of 2007 to 1.57 million in the first quarter of 2008. The number of accounts increased from 1.6 million to 1.64 million.

The credit portfolio of the bank increased by 35 billion soums to 2.072 trillion soums or US$1.32 billion. The share of long-term loans in total volume comprised 56.4%. NBU allocated 40 billion soums (or 153.9% compared to forecast) of loan to small businesses in the reporting period, including 28.4 billion soums of short-term loans and 11.6 billion soums of long-term credits.

The session said the deposits of individuals grew from 197.6 billion soums in the first quarter of 2007 to 233.2 billion soums in the same period of 2008.

NBU said it issued over 20,900 plastic cards in January-March 2008 and their total number reached 1.15 million. Total volume of transactions made up 34.4 billion soums.