Armenian banks paid 19.4bln drams taxes to state budget in 1st half of 2016

ArmInfo. Armenian banks paid 19.4bln drams taxes to the state budget in the 1st half of 2016, which is 13.7% lower than for the same period of 2015. Direct taxes (including profits and incomes taxes) amounted more than 90% or 17.4bln drams of total with a 15% decline year-over-year. According to the State Revenue Committee, 13 of the 19 operating banks were among top 100 biggest taxpayers in Armenia in the 1st half of 2016.  Top 5 taxpayer-banks were Ameriabank, VTB Bank (Armenia), Ardshinbank, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank and Armbusnessbank, with four of them were among top 5 taxpayer-banks a year ago too. In the 1st half of 2016, the top 5 taxpayer- banks paid 10.1bln drams to the state budget (down 16.3% y-o-y), of which 9.3bln drams were direct taxes (down 16.8% y-o-y).   

Ameriabank is the leading taxpayer-bank that took the 19th place (vs13th place a year ago) in the list of the top taxpayers and paid 2.7bln drams to the state budget, of which 2.6bln drams were direct taxes (including profits tax and income tax).  Then goes VTB Bank (Armenia) - 26th place (24th a year ago) - 2.02bln drams taxes, including 1.8bln drams direct ones; Ardshinbank - 27th place (26th) - 1.9bln drams of which 1.8bln drams were direct taxes; ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank - 20th place (36th) - 1.8bln drams of which 1.6bln - direct taxes. Armbusinessbank round out Top 5 largest taxpayer-banks - 30th place (27th) - 1.7bln drams, of which 1.5bln drams - direct taxes. 

Top 100 taxpayers of Armenia comprise the following banks too: INECOBANK(35th place - 1.6bln drams, incl.1.5bln drams direct taxes), Unibank (49th place -1.2bln drams, inlc.1bln drams direct taxes), HSBC Bank Armenia (71st place - 791mln drams, incl. 679mln drams direct taxes), Armeconombank (74th place - 775mln drams, incl. 686mln direct taxes), Converse Bank (78th place - 761mln drams, incl. 695mln drams direct taxes), Bank Anelik (81st place - 748.2mln drams, incl. 662.6mln drams direct taxes), Araratbank (84th place - 734mln drams, incl. 676mln direct taxes), Areximbank-GPB Group (99th place - 615.3mln drams, incl.476.6mln - direct taxes). 

Top 200 largest taxpayers of Armenia among others comprise the following banks: ArmSwissbank - 111th place - 551mln drams (incl. 532.5mln direct taxes), Armenian Development Bank - 148th place - 398mln drams (incl. 369.1mln drams direct taxes), Prometey Bank - 172nd place - 333.1mln drams (incl. 309.7mln drams direct taxes), and Mellat Bank - 184th place - 317.2mln drams (incl. 306mln drams direct taxes).

Top 1,000 largest taxpayers of Armenia included Byblos Bank Armenia -235th place - 250.1mln drams (incl. 149.2mln drams direct taxes) and Artsakhbank - 396th place - 135mln drams (inc. 102mln drams direct taxes). 

According to ArmInfo's Financial Rating of Armenian Banks, the accumulated profits of the banking system of Armenia for the 1st half of 2016 totaled 152.5bln drams, falling 3.5% year over year. Top 5 banks by accumulated profits are HSBC Bank Armenia - 33.8bln drams, Ardshinbank - 27.8bln drams.  Ameriabank - 20.2bln drams, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank - 15.2bln drams. INECOBANK - 13.01bln drams. The Banking system received 16.65bln drams profits for the 1st half of 2016 (up 36.2% year over year), with the post-tax net profits totaling 12.4bln drams with a 58.7% year-over-year growth.  In Q2 2016, net profits of the banking system grew 3fold to 9.3bln drams (exchange rate for June 30 3016 - 476.68 AMD/1USD.).

ProCredit Bank and BTA Bank merged with INECOBANK and Armeconombank, respectively, and are not available in the list of taxpayers. The banking sector is being consolidated including through merger of banks to meet the Central Bank's minimal capital required for 2017 - 30bln drams. 7 banks have met this requirement (32-60.3bln drams as of July 1 2016) ahead of time: Ameriabank, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, HSBC Bank Armenia, Ardshinbank, VTB Bank (Armenia), INECOBANK and Armbusinessbank.