Interview with General Director of “Areximbank – Group of Gasprombank” closed joint stock company Ruben Khachatryan

- What is the amount of money transfers carried out through the bank over 10 months? Is there an increase recorded or the last year downward trend continues both in terms of the number of transfers and the amount?

- If we speak about the overall volume of money transfers (including transfers from legal entities and individuals through S.W.I.F.T. and transfers from individuals through various payment systems), then the decline continued through 2012. This trend was seen for Armenian banking sector as a whole. Our bank recorded a decline of about 9% in 10 months of 2012, compared with the same period of 2011. Should we consider it separately, this year we observed considerable increase in transfers from individuals through various payment systems. As compared with 2011, the amount grew by almost 42%, from $11,736,063 in 2011 to $16,634,878 in 2012. The number of transfers also grew over 10 months – from 18,590 in 2011 to 27,006 in 2012 per payment system and from 28,235 to 38,429 transfers in total. We attribute this to growing number of our clients, which, of course, is a pleasant fact.

- What do you think, how the money transfer situation will change in 2013?

-Improvement of situation in 2012 inspires hopes for 15% increase in 2013 (despite the suspension of “Migom” international money transfer system in Armenia). Today almost every bank is offering international money transfer services to its clients. The market overflows with offers, consequently the demand is declining. Those who offer better service levels will win. In order to do that, they should keep increasing efficiency and expanding ranges of their services and cooperation with various international payment systems. We do the same. Today, our bank carries out international money transfers through systems like “BISTRAYA POCHTA”, “CONTACT”, “MONEYGRAM”, “BLIZKO”, “ANELIK” and “UNISTREAM”. We make efforts to join some other payment systems of Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.

- Which countries have the largest number of transfers in your bank? According to the Central Bank, amount of transfers from the USA and Ukraine reduced in 2012, whereas transfers from Kazakhstan and UAE have grown. Why, what do you think?

The Russian Federation and the USA remain leaders both in number and amount of transfers.
Some 21,864 transfers for a total of $13.864.271 were carried out between Russia and Armenia in 10 months of 2012. In the same period, number of transfers between Armenia and the US was 1,242 worth a total of $625,627. Ukraine was the third – 682 transfers and $463,206 respectively. Large inflow of transfers from Kazakhstan and the UAE is probably connected with high temporary outflow of Armenians to Kazakhastan and UAE for construction works, as well as with trade agreements signed by individuals and legal entities, between Armenia and the mentioned countries.
As concerns the general trends on the market, in my opinion, declining amount of transfers from Ukraine and the United States is attributable to the current economic instability in those countries. –0--