Monday, August 9 2010 19:00
General obligations of Armenian banking system down 4.1% for Q2 2010 to US$2.9 billion
ArmInfo. General obligations of the Armenian banking system were down 4.1% for Q2 2010 (versus 4.8% growth for Q1 and 1% decline for Q2 2009). This indicator grew 21% over the year (versus 25.2% growth in Q2 2009) to 1.066 trillion drams ($2.9 billion) on June 30.
Ranking of Armenian Commercial Banks prepared by Agency of Rating Marketing (ArmInfo) says time deposits fell 6.2% for Q2 2010 in total liabilities (versus 2.1% growth for Q2 2009), call liabilities fell 10% (versus 1.6% decline in Q2 2009), bank correspondent accounts (loro) fell 7.8%, deposits and loans provided by banks and other financial organizations fell 0.01%. Time deposits grew 30.3% versus Q2 2009, call liabilities grew 23,7%, deposits and loans provided by banks and other financial organizations- 47.3% and loro-accounts - 9.3%. Out of 21 operating banks, call liabilities of 14 banks grew and time deposits of 15 banks fell for Q2 2010. Call liabilities of 5 banks and time deposits of 4 banks fell versus Q2 2009. The annual dynamics of obligations showed that to retain lending despite the crisis of 2009, the banks raised funds both from the domestic and foreign sources and through involvement into international credit programs. More active involvement of banks into international programs makes it possible for them to raise long-term and inexpensive funds to on-lend on attractive rates. Since late June 2009 Armenia has received funds as part of the WB stand-by arrangement and the Russian stabilization loan. Part of these funds was spent on development of SMEs through commercial banks that received these funds from the Central Bank and the Government in terms of the national currency. Alongside with this, banks provide mortgage loans as part of the KfW mortgage program.
In addition, the significant annual growth of deposits in terms of the national dram is the result of the sharp devaluation of the national currency on March 3 2009 - 22%. In general obligations the share of time deposits on June 30 2010 was 39.9%, call liabilities totaled 25.4%, deposits and credits provided by banks and other financial organizations totaled 23.8% and loro-accounts totaled 1.4%. In absolute terms, these indicators amounted to 425 billion drams, 270.6 billion drams, 254.2 billion drams and 15,3 billion drams, respectively. The share of deposits and loans from banks and other financial organizations grew for Q2 2010 amid 1.7% decline in call liabilities, 0.7% time deposits and 0.1% loro-accounts. HSBC Bank Armenia ranks the first in terms of the share of call liabilities in total as of June 30 2010 - 57.4%. Unibank is the leader in terms of the share of time deposits in total - 67.7% despite the quarterly decline of the given indicators of the two banks.
Call liabilities of 14 banks fell for Q2 2010 and this indicator of another 5 banks suffered decline versus Q2 2009. The other banks ensured growth of this indicator. Call liabilities of Prometey Bank suffered the biggest decline for Q2 - 49.1% (18th position by the absolute indicator) and call liabilities of Armswissbank suffered the biggest decline versus Q2 2009 - 78.6% (the 20th position by absolute indicator). Byblos Bank Armenia ensured the highest growth of call liabilities for year and for Q2 2010 - almost 3-fold (the 15th position). Top three banks in terms of call liabilities are HSBC Bank Armenia (62 billion drams), Ardshininvestbank (28.1 billion drams) and Converse Bank (27.4 billion drams). Time deposits of 15 banks suffered quarterly decline and this indicator of another 4 banks suffered decline as against Q2 2009. All the other banks ensured growth of time deposits. Converse Bank's time deposits fell 20% quarterly and 36% for the year (9th position by absolute indicator), whereas Byblos Bank Armenia ensured almost 21% quarterly growth of time deposits (17th position) and Armbusinessbank ensured almost 3-fold growth of time deposits versus Q2 2009.
Top five banks in terms of time deposits are Unibank - 62.8 billion drams, Ameriabank - 50.4 billion drams (inclusive of Cascade Bank that was merged with Ameriabank in mid June 2010) , Ardshininvestbank - 39.6 billion drams, HSBC Bank Armenia -38.6 billion drams and ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank - 38.5 billion drams. The share of these banks in total is 54%. Unibank, Ardshininvestbank, HSBC Bank Armenia and ACBA-Credit Agrciole Bank provide mostly personal loans, whereas Ameriabank lends to legal entities.
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