Moldovan commercial bank FinComBank on Monday reported a 64.4% jump in first-half net profit on the year to 17.1 million lei ($1.4 million/1.02 million euro) as it expanded its business.

The head of FinComBank's marketing department, Alexandr Bobarykin, told SeeNews the rise in the net profit was mainly due to the expansion of the bank's branch network and attracting more clients.

The bank opened two representative offices in central and southern Moldova in the first half of the year and plans to open another one soon, Bobarykin said. The number of the bank's clients rose to 75,700 in the first half from 57,100 a year earlier.

FinComBank, established in 1993, had 13 branches and 21 representative offices across the country at the end of June.

Following are data from FinComBank's balance sheet and income statement (in millions of lei):

                                  H1'07                   H1'06
     Net Profit                17.1                     10.4
     Total Assets       1,229.8                1,027.3
     Credit Portfolio     816.7                   692.8
     Deposits                854.8                   741.0


Moldova, wedged between Romania and Ukraine, has 15 commercial banks.

(1 euro=16.7262 Moldovan lei)