YEREVAN, July 29. /ARKA/. In the first half of 2026, 17 commercial banks in Armenia transferred 116.16 billion drams in tax and customs payments to the state budget.
With a total net profit of 219.72 billion drams in the banking system, for every dram of earned profit, there was an average of 0.53 drams in budget transfers.
Armbanks compared data from the State Revenue Committee of Armenia on the largest taxpayers with the banks’ financial statements and compiled a ranking based on the volume of transfers per dram of net profit.
How the ranking was compiled
The ranking is based on the ratio of the total amount of tax and customs payments to net profit after tax.
This indicator is not an effective tax rate and does not reflect a bank’s tax burden. The total amount of transfers includes not only profit tax but also income tax, which banks transfer as tax agents, VAT, customs duties, and other mandatory payments.
Thus, the Armbanks ranking shows the actual amount of funds transferred to the budget per dram of net profit.
Who were the leaders?
Fast Bank took first place in the Armbanks ranking. With a net profit of 2 billion drams, it transferred 2.29 billion drams to the budget—1.14 drams for every dram of profit.
Byblos Bank Armenia came in second (1.04 drams), and VTB Bank (Armenia) came in third (0.87 drams).
Armeconombank (0.70) and ArmSwissbank (0.65) also made the top five.
A high indicator value does not in itself indicate a higher tax burden. It is influenced by the structure of tax payments, the size of profits, and the differences between the recognition of profit in financial statements and the actual payment of taxes.
Leaders by Transfer Volume
When comparing the absolute amounts of tax and customs payments, the picture differs.
Ardshinbank provided the largest volume of transfers—33.6 billion drams. It was followed by Ameriabank (22.15 billion drams) and ACBA BANK (10.62 billion drams).
However, in the main ranking, they only occupy tenth, ninth, and sixth places, respectively, since the methodology takes into account not the total volume of payments, but their ratio to net profit.
What are bank payments made up of?
The bulk of these transfers came from profit tax—74.03 billion drams, or almost two-thirds of the total.
Another 32.95 billion drams came from income tax, which banks withhold and transfer to the budget as tax agents. The remaining amount consisted of VAT (2.63 billion drams) and other taxes and mandatory payments (6.55 billion drams).
Therefore, the total amount of transfers cannot be directly compared with net profit, as they are taxes calculated solely on the bank’s financial results.
Why transfers may exceed profits
For Fast Bank and Byblos Bank Armenia, the amount of transfers exceeded their net profit for the first half of the year. This is due to the calculation methodology, not because the banks paid more in taxes than their profits.
The numerator accounts for all actual payments, including withheld income tax, while the denominator is the net profit after tax. Furthermore, the timing of profit accrual and actual tax payments may not coincide.
What does a comparison with assets show?
Total tax and customs payments by banks amounted to 0.84% of banking system assets at the end of June.
The highest transfer-to-asset ratios were recorded at VTB Bank (Armenia) (1.58%), Mellat Bank (1.31%), and Ardshinbank (1.17%).
This indicator allows for a comparison of budget transfers with the scale of a bank’s operations; however, like the main ranking, it does not characterize the level of the tax burden.
Conclusion
The ranking does not show who pays more taxes, but rather the volume of mandatory payments per dram of net profit. This indicator is influenced not only by a bank’s financial performance, but also by the structure of tax transfers, accounting practices, and the timing of tax compliance. Therefore, it is correct to view it as an indicator of the ratio of profit to actual budget payments, rather than as an assessment of a particular bank’s performance or tax burden.
