ARMENIAN BANKS AND RA CENTRAL BANKS UNITE EFFORTS TO REDUCE SHADOW ECONOMY
AZG Armenian Daily #144, 02/08/2006
Economy
On July 31, in the course of the joint meeting of the Union of
the Armenian Banks and RA Central Bank, it decided to carry out
joint arrangements directed to reduction of the shadow economy
and activation of the banks in the crediting market. Chairman of
RA Central Bank Tigran Sargsian and Stepan Gishian, chairman of
Board of the Union of the Armenian Banks, stated about this in their
speeches. They stated that the level of shadow economy is quite high
in Armenia and this hinders the fair competition. Sargsian stated
that the banking system of Armenia functions out of the shadow and
its published indicators fully reflect the reality. He added that
due to its adequacy and liquidity, the banking system of Armenia is a
rather high level. The ROA and ROE profitability level of our banking
system is even higher than that of the European countries. Sargsian
said that in the coming few years the high level of profitability will
secure stability and high tempos of development for the banking system
of Armenia. In his turn, S. Gishian pointed out the main strategic
lines for the development of the Union of the Armenian Banks for
2006. This deepening of cooperation between UBA and RA Central Bank,
RA Government and RA Parliament, with the European Banking Federation,
application of new daft laws for will contribute to the improvement
of the legislative climate and development of the banking system of
Armenia. Touching upon the achievements fixed in the banking system
of Armenian in 2005, Gishian said that the GDP grew by 13,9%, the
common actives of the banks by 21,2%, common capital by 46,6%, the
volume of credit investments by 36%, the profitability of the capital
by 15,3%. In 2005, the liquidity of the banking system made 41,8%,
the credit rates decreased by almost 4 times. Gishian stated that RA
Central Bank will coordinate the steps envisaged for 2006. Five banks
of Armenia participated in today’s meeting, particularly, Areximbank,
Armenian Development Bank, "Ararat" Bank, ArmInvestBank and Unibank.
By Ara Martirosian