ArmInfo. In Armenia, the threshold for the maximum amount of guaranteed deposits of individuals in the country's commercial banks will be raised.
The Commission on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Issues of the RA National Assembly at the sitting on September 8 issued a positive opinion on the amendments to the law "On Guaranteeing Reimbursement of Individuals' Bank Deposits" presented in the second reading by the NA deputy from the Prosperous Armenia faction Mikael Melkumyan.
According to Mikael Melkumyan, the amendments presented are the result of a joint legislative initiative with the Central Bank. It is about raising the threshold for AMD deposits from the current 10 million drams to 16 million drams, and for foreign currency deposits - from the current 5 million drams (in currency equivalent) to 7 million drams. At the same time, Melkumyan stressed that this legislative initiative does not envisage an increase in quarterly payments from RA commercial banks in the amount of 0.05% to the Deposit Guarantee Fund. A similar need arose as a result of the study. According to this study, it was revealed that over the past 5 years the number of depositors in the country has decreased. At the same time, a legislative initiative is needed to increase the coverage of deposit insurance, which currently accounts for 41.5%. According to Mikael Melkumyan, by increasing the threshold, this indicator will be increased to 45%, thereby covering large depositors, whose share is about 1.5% in quantitative terms. However, in terms of the volume of invested funds, the share of large investors accounts for over 60%. It should be noted that according to the financial rating of Armenian banks as of December 31, 2019, prepared by ArmInfo IC, the volume of deposits (demand and time) in the banking system of Armenia amounted to 3.5 trillion drams ($ 7.3 billion), with an annual growth of 20.7% ... Of these, about 1.95 trillion drams or $ 4.1 billion are deposits of individuals (demand and time), with an annual growth of 14.8%. In the total volume of total liabilities of the banking system of Armenia, the share of time deposits is about 43% or 2.2 trillion. drams ($ 4.4 billion), of which over 71% are time deposits of individuals. On an annualized basis, the volume of term deposits of the RA banking system increased by 14%. The ratio of the total volume of demand and time deposits to Armenia's GDP at the end of 2019 reached 54%, against 45% in 2018.
