YEREVAN, August 30. / ARKA /. Armenian banks’ lending to private enterprises in the first half of 2011 increased by 20.7% to about 655.9 billion drams, according to interim financial statements of banks for the second quarter.

As of June 30, 2011 the volume of loans and other borrowings to customers amounted to 1.008.9 billion drams, up from 922.4 billion drams at the beginning of the year. The lending to private enterprises accounted for 60.24% of the total loan portfolio of the banking system.

An analysis made by ARKA news agency shows that Ameriabank was the leader in lending to private enterprises with a 15.2% share in the overall lending. Some 85.2% of its loan portfolio or 99.7 billion drams were loans to private enterprises.

The list of the leaders by size of lending to private enterprises included also Armbusinessbank (72.4 billion drams), HSBC Bank Armenia (69 billion drams), Bank VTB Armenia (54.1 billion drams) and Ardshininvestbank (49.2 billion drams.

Some banks also provided information about the distribution of loans to private small, medium-sized and large enterprises. Thus, Ameriabank lent 87.8 billion to large enterprises and 11.9 billion drams to small and medium-sized enterprises, HSBC Bank Armenia’s lending to large companies stood at 44.2 billion drams and lending to small and medium businesses at 24.8 billion drams. Armbusinessbank’s loans to large companies amounted to 31.1 billion drams and 41.3 billion drams to small and medium enterprises. There are 21 commercial banks in Armenia operating with 417 branches. ($ 1 - 368.28 AMD).-0-