YEREVAN, October 30. /ARKA/. The amount of lending provided by Armenian banks in the first 9 months of 2019 grew to 3.37 trillion drams, the chairman of the Union of Banks of Armenia Mher Abrahamyan told reporters on Wednesday.
According to him, the lending in the third quarter alone increased by 3.6% or 118.5 billion drams, and by 3.9% or 125.5 billion drams since the beginning of the year.
He said about 62% of the lending was provided to economic entities and 36% to individuals. According to him, the size of problem loans reached 7% of the total, however, the size is declining, which is also an important indicator of the banking system.
He said the decline is facilitated by economic growth and other economic changes and the size of problem loans is within the acceptable and manageable framework being one of the lowest in the region. He said along with lending the banks are investing also actively in securities.
“This, first of all, is a good opportunity to quickly transform assets into cash, which allows getting additional liquid funds,” Abrahamyan said.
He also positively assessed the dynamics of mortgage lending growth, emphasizing that today the mortgage portfolio of Armenian banks makes 9% of their total loan portfolios. He said in the first half of the year mortgage lending grew by 15%.
“There are banks whose mortgage portfolio surged by 40-60 percent in the first half of the year. The indicators are impressive and it is clear that the government’s decision to refund income tax on loan repayments played a role making mortgage loans more attractive and affordable for citizens,” Abrahamyan said.
According to the central bank of Armenia, the total capital of Armenian banks in the first 9 months of 2019 increased by 6.2% to 818.6 billion drams. Their assets amounted to 5.395 trillion drams, having increased by 8.7% or 432 billion. ($ 1 – 476.15 dram). -0-
