YEREVAN, May 20. / ARKA /. Armenian commercial banks’ average return on assets (ROA) index, showing a company’s efficiency in making profits from its assets, fell to 0.27% in the first quarter of 2015 from 0.91% in late December 2014, according to an ARKA news agency’s analysis, which showed that in terms of ROA index the leading bank was Inecobank with 2.6% ROA, down from 3.83% in late 2014.
Inecobank was followed by Iranian Bank Mellat with 2.31% ROA, up from 1.03% in 2014 December. It was followed by HSBC Bank Armenia with 2.26% ROA, down from 2.53% in late 2014, Armswissbank – with 1.83%, down from 3.12% and Ameriabank – with 1.50% against 2.08% in 2014 December.
At the same time, the average return on equity (ROE) index fell to 1.87% from 5.58% in 2014 December. The leading bank by size of ROE was Inecobank again with 15.08%, down from 21% at the end of 2014, followed by HSBC Bank Armenia – 14.13% vs. 14.71%, Ameriabank – 13.66% vs. 17.82 %, Unibank- 10.66% vs. 4.45% and Conversebank – 8.86% versus 11.59%.
Armenian banks’ profits have been falling since November 2014 prompted by the devaluation of the national currency, the dram and deteriorating economic situation.
As of late March 2015 the 21 Armenia-based commercial banks’ total assets stood at 3 272.1 trillion drams, a 3.4% decline from the beginning of the year.
Their liabilities dropped by 4.4% to 2.785.7 trillion drams; credit investments saw a 3.5% fall to 2.075.6 trillion drams, liabilities to clients fell by 4.4% to 1.62 trillion drams, while their overall capital grew by 2.7% to 486.4 billion drams.
Their net profit for the first quarter of 2015 slashed by 75.2% from the first quarter of 2014 to 2.2 billion drams. ($1 – 42.27 drams).–0—
