YEREVAN, September 30. / ARKA /. A Central Bank of Armenia Board member Armenak Darbinyan praised today the country’s banking system describing it as ‘one of the most stable financial systems in the region’, adding also that this should be advertised vigorously among citizens.

"We had a negative experience from the Soviet times when our country fellows saw their savings depreciate dramatically, which in turn reduced their trust in the financial institutions, especially in banks. But today we have one of the most stable financial systems in the region," Darbinyan said after the official presentation of a campaign designed to improve the level of financial literacy of the population. The project called My Financial Month is scheduled to be launched in late October this year.

Darbinyan said many people are still wary of the banks’ policy to insure their deposits up to 4 million drams. "I want to assure everyone that this really works. The government has committed to guarantee and refund the deposits if something happens to the banking system,” he said.

Darbinyan singled out the increased level of banking intermediation over the past 6-7 years saying the ratio of financial assets to GDP rose to 70 percent from 35 % five years ago.

The same applies to the ratio of loans to GDP, which has increased over 40 % , whereas a few years ago it was 18-20%, but he added that these indicators are still far behind of the developed countries, but are comparable with the countries of the region. -0-