Wednesday, November 14 2012 19:16
Assets of the banking system of Armenia up 11.6% for 9 months of 2012
ArmInfo. Assets of the banking system of Armenia were up 11.6% for nine months of 2012 totaling 2.3 trillion drams ($5.7 bln) as of Sept 30. Ranking of Armenian Banks prepared by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo) says assets growth rates have certainly slackened in 2012 - for 9 months of 2011 the growth was 20.7%. For 12 months assets grew 21.5% versus 30.1% in 2011.
Assets grew as credit exposures increased 26.1%, investment in government bonds increased 26.7%, cash - 28.1%, funds on nostro-accounts - 68.4%.
In the structure of assets, the share of credit exposures was 68.2%, the share of investment in government bonds was 6.5%, the share of cash was 4%, and the share of nostro-accounts was 4.7%. ArmInfo's experts say dynamics of these indicators show that lending is maintained mostly at the expense of the funds on nostro-accounts, cash and the funds provided as part of international credit programs. Alongside with that banks sell their trading books of government bonds. Earlier banks preferred lending to economy sectors rather than to individuals. However, starting 2012 only 10 banks invested in economy sectors, while the other 11 were focusing on personal loans.
Real credit exposures totaled 1565 bln drams ($3.9 bln) or 68.3% of assets as of Sept 30 2012. Inclusive of the possible loss reserve this indicator totaled 1531 bln drams, with reserves growing 55% versus 9 months of 2011, and over twofold versus the same period of 2009. The share of overdue loans in the total loan portfolio of commercial banks (exclusive of inter-bank loans and deposits) reaches 5.7% (versus 5.6% in Q2 2012, 5% in Q4 2011 and 4.6% in Q3 2011.
The share of lending to economy sectors fell from 65.9% to 65.1% for 9 months of 2012 or 1019 bln drams ($2.5 bln). This indicator grew 26.1% versus nine months of 2011 and 39.6% versus the same period of 2010). The growth slackened for Q3 2012 from 8% to 0.3% versus 7.3% growth for Q3 2011. At the same time, summary personal loans provided by commercial banks grew 29.9% versus nine months of 2011, and versus 28% growth a year before. This indicator fell from9.1% to 1.4% for Q3 2012 versus 4.1% growth for Q3 2011 to 462.2 bln drams or $1.1 bln as of Sept 30. The share of retail loans in total loan portfolio grew from 28.7 to 29.5%.
Lending to the following economy sectors grew for nine months of 2012: agriculture - 15.5%, trade sector - 19%, services sector - 18.2%, industrial sector - 8.1%, construction sector -0.5%, amid 6.2% decline of transport and communications sector. The share of SME in total loan portfolio of the banking system was 27% or over $1 bln, with the growth for Q3 2012 being 1.9% versus 5.5% growth for Q2. The growth rate of the mortgage portfolio of banks fell from 7% to 2.6% for Q3 2012, the portfolio of loans for purchase of goods by installment fell from 20% to 10%, credit cards - from 42.2% to 10%, amid decline of auto loans from 10% to 5.8%.
Top five banks in terms of assets as of Sept 30 2012 were still ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, Ameriabank, Armbusinessbank, HSBC Bank Armenia and Ardshininvestbank. The share of these banks in total assets of the banking system was over 46% for their share in the total loan portfolio is nearly 46%. Ameriabank was still the leader in terms of lending to economy - 127.3 bln drams (76.7% of total loans of the bank). HSBC Bank Armenia was the second with 111.1 bln drams (78%), Armbusinessbank was the third- 89.2 bln drams (73.5%), VTB Bank (Armenia) was the fourth with 89.1 bln drams (58.9%), and ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank was the fifth - 81 bln drams (47.9%). ProCredit Bank that entered the banking market in Feb 2008 provided 28.5 bln drams loans to the economy sectors or 90.3% of its total portfolio of loans as of Sept 30 2012.
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