OREANDA-NEWS. November 05, 2008. Moldovan commercial bank FinComBank had a net profit of 32.2 million lei (US2.8 million/2.0 million euro) for the nine months through September, up 63.7% from a year earlier, a bank official said, reported the press-centre of FinComBank.

Profit rose due to increased income of the bank, including interest income, and expansion of the bank's branch network, the head of FinComBank's marketing department, Alexandr Bobarykin, told.

FinComBank had 13 branches and 22 representative offices throughout Moldova at the end of September. It plans to open one branch and three representative offices in the country by the end of this year, Bobarykin said.

The number of the bank's clients rose to 71,000 at the end of September from 61,376 at the end of 2006.

Last month FinComBank raised its equity capital to 129.5 million lei through a 36.64 million lei share issue. The main subscriber was the U.S. government-backed private equity fund Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF). Now it holds a 25% stake in the bank.

(1 euro=16.5596 Moldovan lei).