The Banking Executive - Decemebr 2021, Issue 156

ISSUE 156 DECEMBER 2021 the BANKING EXECUTIVE 31 Astro Bank 1. HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF ASTROBANK, WHAT WHERE THE MAIN CHAL- LENGES, MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACCORDINGLY PLANS FOR THE NEAR FUTURE? The past year has been a very diffi- cult year worldwide, as economies everywhere had to grapple with an unusual, pervasive phenomenon, never experienced before in modern times. It was a surprising fact and a sobering experience to see how in- sufficiently prepared countries are, rich and poor, advanced and devel- oping, in the face of a serious health threat. It shows how potentially dev- astating biological warfare could be and how essential it is to have a uni- versal treaty banning all forms of re- search aimed at weaponizing viruses and other disease generating organ- isms. As for most banking sectors around the world, we have in Cyprus felt the impact of the sudden drop in eco- nomic activity in many sectors. A dry up of tourist flows, the successive lockdowns and a slowdown in for- eign investment streams, have af- fected the performance of the hospitality, real estate, retail, services and consequently, banking sector. At AstroBank, we decided very early on to transform the crisis into an op- portunity by streamlining our opera- tion, cutting costs and offering a voluntary retirement scheme to those of our long-serving employees who wished to leave. Parallel to that, we intensified virtual communication with our clients in order to monitor their specific issues and to remain on their side in these troubled times. The high levels of liquidity that the Bank enjoys allowed us to finance this plan and to ride the difficulties in a relatively smooth manner. The challenges posed by the pan- demic forced us to quickly develop a new approach to work in order to protect our staff and preserve the seamless continuity of our business. I am convinced that we are emerging from the crisis a much leaner, much stronger and much improved Bank. We are now better positioned than before the crisis to pursue our growth model based on aggressive internal growth and acquisitions. This is demonstrated by our recent acquisi- tion of the Cyprus-based operation of one of Lebanon’s major bank. INTERVIEW WITH DR. SHADI A. KARAM, CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS, ASTROBANK