YEREVAN, February 28./ ARKA/. Lending to private enterprises made by Armenian banks climbed 42.5 % to nearly 774 billion drams at end-2011 from the same period of a year earlier, according to the banks’ fourth-quarter interim financial statements.

As of December 31, 2011, the total loan volume as well as other borrowings to customers amounted to 1 226,6 billion drams against 922,4 billion drams from a year earlier. In fact, lending to private enterprises made up 61.11% of the banking system’s total loan portfolio.

According to analysis compiled by ARKA, as of December end, 2011, Ameriabank is a leader in lending to private enterprises with a 14.4% share in overall lending. Some 81.47% of its loan portfolio or 111,3 billion drams were loans to private enterprises.

Other banks such as HSBC Bank Armenia (nearly 86,1 billion drams), Armbusinessbank (79,6 billion drams), VTB Bank (Armenia) (69,9 billion drams) and ACBA-Credit-Agricole (62,9 billion drams) also appeared in the list of leaders in this lending sector. The share of this indicator in the total loan portfolio of these banks accounted to 80.02%, 73.56%, 54.49% and 43.12% respectively.

Some banks also report on loan allocation to private small, medium-sized and large enterprises. In particular, Ameriabank allocated 93,9 billion drams to large enterprises, and 17,4 billion drams to small and middle-sized ones, HSBC Bank Armenia distributed 61,2 billion drams to large enterprises, 24,8 billion drams- small and medium ones. Armbusinessbank’s loans to large enterprises amounted to 37,2 billion drams whereas to small and medium-sized enterprises- 42,5 billion drams.
As of December 31, 2011 there are 21 commercial banks with 437 branches in Armenia. ($1 – 388.93 drams). –0--