Expert: The impact of the pandemic on the banking system of Armenia  was not as severe as expected

ArmInfo. Despite the significant stress associated with the coronavirus, Armenia's banking system has shown itself to be stable. Chairman of the Board of  Directors of ARARATBANK Grigor Hovhannisyan, Chairman of the Bank's  Council, expressed a similar opinion to journalists at the event  dedicated to the rebranding of ARARATBANK on September 24.

In this regard, he referred to the results of a macroeconomic study,  which indicate that the impact of the pandemic on the banking system  of Armenia was not as severe as expected. "The system turned out to  be stable," the expert emphasized.

However, he noted that hasty assessments should not be given, since  the second wave of the coronavirus has just begun in Europe, and the  Armenian banking system is integrated into international financial  markets. "Everything will depend on the outcome of the pandemic in  the near future. Everything is stable at the moment," Hovhannisyan  said. At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that in the  conditions of the coronavirus crisis, many banks were forced to meet  clients and postpone loan payments, which led to certain losses for  the latter. "I think that in order to make up for these losses, the  Central Bank has lowered the refinancing rate in order to accordingly  somewhat reduce this pressure," he added.

In turn, Executive Director of the Union of Banks of Armenia Seyran  Sargsyan added that the pandemic created certain problems, but this  did not affect the level of citizens' confidence in the banking  system of Armenia. In this context, Sargsyan noted that the majority  of citizens continue to keep their savings in banks. In addition,  according to him, the fact that non-residents also give preference to  the commercial banks of Armenia from the point of view of keeping  their funds, speaks about the liquidity, stability and reliability of  the banking system.