YEREVAN, February 6. /ARKA/. In 2011 five largest Armenian banks owned 45.8% or 950.1 billion drams of the banking sector’s combined assets, which on December 31, 2011 stood at  about 2.1 trillion drams, rising by 33.6% from a year earlier, according to  interim reports of banks for the fourth quarter of 2011.

An ARKA analysis shows that over the past nine years the share of five largest banks in the aggregate assets of the banking system has been gradually reducing- from 54.14% in 2003 to 45.77% in 2010.

The largest share of top five banks in total assets was recorded in 2004, when they held 55.44% of all assets and the lowest in 2006 (45.56%).

Share of five largest banks in combined assets (%).

According to ARKA’s ranking, the largest bank by size of assets in 2011 was  ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank -218.6 billion drams, by 30.1% more than in 2010. It accounted for 10.5% of the combined assets.

It was followed by Ameriabank with 201.4 billion drams worth assets which grew by 31.64% from 2010. The third-ranked was VTB Bank (Armenia), whose assets exceeded 182 billion drams rising by 43.26% year-on-year to 8.8% of the combined assets of the banking system. The fourth was HSBC Bank Armenia with 179 billion drams assets, a 23.54% increase from a year earlier. And the fifth was Armbusinessbank with about 168.5 billion drams worth assets which saw a 3.93% rise form 2010. -0-