ArmInfo. An enlightened Armenia MP Mane Tandilian proposed exempting Armenian banks from bad credit taxes on February 11 at a plenary meeting of the country's  parliament.

ArmInfo. Rating-Agentur Expert RA confirmed the  sovereign government credit rating (SGC) of Armenia at 'BB-'  (Sufficient level of creditworthiness of the government) in national  currency and at 'BB-' (Sufficient level of creditworthiness of the  government) in foreign currency.

ArmInfo. The growth of the retail loan portfolio of the banking system of Armenia over the past months has become more supported and supported by a growing mortgage,  which in turn is "spurred on" by a trend of stable increase in  property prices.  

ArmInfo. By November 2019, the banking system of Armenia even more accelerated the annual growth in retail lending - up to 36.3%, which was largely due to the high  activity of consumer lending, including mortgages, whose share  reached 27.5%, thanks to an increase of almost 40 % According to the  Central Bank of Armenia, from 2018 to November, the current growth  rate of consumer lending from 11.1% jumped to 30.9%.

ArmInfo. The total loan portfolio of Armenian banks as of November 1, 2019 exceeded 3.1 trillion drams ($ 6.5 billion), slowing annual growth from 21% to  15%. At the same time, the volume of dram loans reached 1.5 trillion  drams ($ 3.2 billion), and foreign currency loans -1.6 trillion drams  ($ 3.3 billion). According to the Central Bank of the Republic of  Armenia, in the structure of the loan portfolio, a slowdown in annual  growth was observed both in terms of the dram component and the  currency component. Nevertheless, dram loans showed a high growth of  32.1% (against 40.5% a year earlier), while foreign currency growth  turned out to be meager - 2.1% (against 9.6% a year earlier).

ArmInfo. "Agency of Rating Marketing Information" (ArmInfo IC) published and provided its subscribers with a jubilee, hundredth, informational and analytical quarterly newsletter "Financial Ratings of Armenian Banks". "This is  commensurate with ArmInfo's 25 years of presence in the country's  financial analytics market," ArmInfo CEO Emmanuil Mkrtchyan said.

ArmInfo.The transition of Armenian banks to a new format for presenting credit risk (according to IFRS9) completely blurred the picture of the real quality of the  loan portfolio and the presence of toxic loans (NPL), experts of at  the national Rating Agency AmRating are of such an opinion.

ArmInfo. The y-o-y growth of net profit of Armenian banks for the 9 months of 2019 slowed down sharply from 81.5% to 17.7%, amounting to 60.9 billion drams or $ 128  million. This slightly improved efficiency ratios against the  background of a meager slowdown in asset growth from 15% to 14% and  total capital from 10% to 9.4%.

ArmInfo.. Overdue loans in the banking system of Armenia, despite the slowdown, still exceed 9% of the loan portfolio. According to the Financial Rating of the Banks of  Armenia as of June 30, 2019 prepared by ArmInfo IC, their volume in  the reporting period increased by 5% per annum, against the 14%  growth a year earlier.

ArmInfo.The investment company Armenbrok OJSC successfully completed the acquisition of a stake in Capital Investments CJSC. As a result of the transaction, the investment company Armenbrok became the sole owner of Capital Investments CJSC.

ArmInfo.Against the background of political turbulence associated with the "velvet revolution" in April-May 2018, the Armenian banking system demonstrated high reliability, maintaining a previously reached sufficient level of liquidity,  strong capitalization, healthy loan portfolio, substantial deposit  base and moderate profitability, this is stated in the regular  industry research of Armenia's banking system prepared by experts of  AmRating national rating agency in cooperation with European  Rating-Agentur Expert RA GmbH ( https://raexpert.eu/files/Industry_report_Armenia_Banks_27.05.2019.pdf ) As it is noted in the report, the new economic policy of the government, headed by the  leader of the "velvet revolution" and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, differs in many  ways from the former highly corrupt system, which was built up with the existence of  the so-called "shadow economy". The new policy's significant adjustments of ingrained  economic life affected some spheres of the economy and, as a result, influenced to  some extent macroeconomic indicators. 

ArmInfo. In the banking system of Armenia, the growth rates of retail lending are still  significantly higher than the growth rates of corporate.  According  to the Financial Rating of Banks of Armenia, prepared by the ArmInfo  Investment Company, credit growth of individuals accelerated in 2018  from 16.7% to 31.5%, and the lending dynamics of legal entities came  out of minus 1% to ascending 8.8%.

ArmInfo. Overdue loans in the Armenian banking system accelerate growth. According to the Financial Rating of Banks of Armenia, prepared by the ArmInfo IC, their volume  for 2018 increased by 19.4%, against a meager 0.4% growth in 2017. 

ArmInfo. According to the Central Bank of Armenia, by the end of 2018, the total volume of agricultural loans amounted to 136.2 billion drams ($ 282 million),  having increased by 3.6% over the past year.

ArmInfo. The government's initiative to amnesty the fines / penalties of bad loans with  concomitant refinancing, the implementation of which the banks have  started without delay since July this year, did not lead to reduction  in overdue loans.

ArmInfo. On the threshold of launching agricultural risk insurance in Armenia, y-o-y growth of banks' lending to the agricultural sector accelerated dramatically  from 0.9% to 7.4% by July 1, 2018.

ArmInfo.The level of non-performing loans (NPL) increased by 14% over year in the banking system of Armenia. This is evidenced by the data of the ''Financial ratings of commercial banks of Armenia'' analytical report prepared by the Agency of Rating  Marketing Information (ArmInfo) at the end of the first half of 2018.

ArmInfo.

ArmInfo. In 2017 the Armenian  banking sector dynamics were characterized by a high level of excess  liquidity due to finalization of the consolidation process, connected  with the need to comply with the new normative standard of total  capital. The sector was also characterized by the slowing loan and  deposit portfolios' growth rates, insignificant reduction in the  level of capital adequacy, improvement in the asset quality and  profitability figures.