YEREVAN, November 23. /ARKA/. Armenian Central Bank governor, Artur Javadyan, described today the country’s financial system as well-established and stable enjoying the trust of the public. He was quoted as saying in a press release that the banking sector’s growth in the overall national GDP and financial intermediation are the best evidence of this

Speaking at a reception organized to mark the 18th anniversary of the Armenian national currency, the dram and Bank Employee Day, Javadyan emphasized the significance of the introduction of the national currency in the establishment of the financial system of Armenia.

The reception was attended by heads of commercial banks and credit institutions, insurance brokers. Javadyan also spoke about latest reforms in the insurance system, in particular, the introduction of compulsory insurance of cars against damages.

The process of replacing Soviet rubles with the national currency was launched on November 22, 1993. It took about a week. The Armenian dram was traded at 14.5 drams for one U.S. dollar, and the transition to a floating exchange rate raised the exchange rate by year-end almost 5 times to 75 drams per U.S. dollar.

Today, Armenia continues to maintain the floating exchange rate policy. The USD is traded now at 384.32 drams. In early 90s Armenia was one of the first countries in terms of the number of banks per 1 million population. There were 60 local and 15 foreign banks. At present, Armenia has 21 bank with 425 branches.  –0--