Monday, August 9 2010 16:42
Assets of Armenian banking system for Q2 2010 were down 2.1% to 1.371 trillion drams or $3.7 billion
ArmInfo. Assets of the Armenian banking system for Q2 2010 were down 2.1% (versus 4.5% growth in Q1 2010) to 1.371 trillion drams or $3.7 billion. This indicator grew 21.1% over the year (versus 26% growth in 2009). Top five banks in terms of assets as of June 30 2010 were ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, HSBC Bank Armenia, Ameriabank, Armbusinessbank and Ardshininvestbank. The share of these banks was nearly 47% of total assets in the banking system.
Ranking of Armenian Commercial Banks prepared by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo) says assets grew versus Q2 2009 as provision of crediting grew 29.3%, investing in government bonds grew 41.5, cash grew 7.2% amid 38.2% decline of funds on nostro-accounts. The quarterly decline (for Q2 2010) of assets in the banking system was the result of 3.4% decline of cash (versus 2.5% growth for Q1 and 3.5% growth for Q2 2009), 38% decline of funds on nostro-accounts (exclusive of correspondent accounts with Central Bank of Armenia) versus 23% growth for Q1 and 62.8% growth for Q2 2009, as well as 2.3% increase in the loan portfolio (versus 6.7% growth for Q1 and 3% decline for Q2 2009) and 2.2% growth of investing in government bonds (versus 6.3% decline for Q1 and 6.1% decline for Q2 2009).
The share of lending in assets was 61.2% (58.6% for Q1 2010 and 57.3% for Q2 2009) and the share of investing in government bonds was 6.1% (6% and 5.3%, respectively). The quarterly growth of the share of investing in government bonds by 0.1% and the share of lending in assets by almost 3% amid decline of cash and funds of nostro-accounts shows that lending rates are maintained mostly at the expense of funds on nostro-accounts, cash and funds received as part of international credit programs and partially at the expense of the trade portfolios of government bonds, ArmInfo experts say. Banks are still focusing on economy sectors.
Real lending totaled 838.9 billion drams ($2.3 billion) on June 30 2010. The share of loans to economy sectors in total was 63.1% and the share of personal loans totaled 33.1%. On June 30 2010 the banking sector encompassed 21 banks versus 22 banks on March 31 2010. In particular, in mid June the merger of Cascade Bank and Ameriabank was completed.
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