Thursday, April 28 2011 19:06
Armenian president holds a private meeting with bankers
ArmInfo. On April 28 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan held a private discussion with the heads of Armenian banks. The bankers presented their most topical problems to the president.
Upon completion of the discussion, Head of the Union of Banks of Armenia, Chairman of Board of Araratbank Ashot Osipyan told journalists that the meeting with Serzh Sargsyan covered the current tasks in the banking system, macroeconomic indices, as well as further steps for development of the Armenian banking system. Some legislative aspects concerning the banks' activities were discussed. Osipyan said that the participants also discussed the level of competition in the banking system, which is quite high and contributes to reduction of interest rates in the market.
"Today we have 21 commercial banks and quite a high level of competition in the banking system, due to which 2-3% reduction in the interest rates was fixed in the market in 2010", said Osipyan. "The competition continues, and according to my assessments, the rates are declining", said Osipyan.
When commenting on the banks' readiness for the program of preferential financing of farmers, Osipyan said that the program has already been launched and has given quite high results. "The program is quite successful, there are good results already", said the banker and added that the issue of possible continuation of this program was also discussed with the president. According to Osipyan, Serzh Sargsyan pointed out that similar programs will be implemented in the future as well, and stressed the high importance and effectiveness of structural reforms in the matter of improvement of the macroeconomic indices.
During the discussion the president and the bankers came to the conclusion that one should fight the inflationary pressure in the economy by means of long-term structural changes, including those in the agricultural sphere.
Osipyan said that similar discussions will be held regularly. The further steps will be specified within the frames of these discussions.
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