YEREVAN, May 8. /ARKA/.  Total deposits from legal entities and individuals in Armenia’s banks rose by 3.21% to 1,560.4 billion drams in the first quarter.

Information from ‘Banks of Armenia” Q1 2014 bulletin prepared by ARKA shows the following banks are on the top five list in terms of deposits in the first quarter – Ameriabank, Ardshininvestbank, HSBC Bank Armenia, Bank VTB (Armenia) and Unibank. These five banks together account for about half of all deposits.

Ameriabank maintained its leadership as of the end of Q1. Its deposits rose by 25.01% to over 212.4 billion drams.

Ardshininvestbank placed the second with a total of 179.7 billion drams in deposits (increase of 24.87% over the quarter). Deposits in HSBC Bank Armenia amounted to over 162.2 billion drams (a 2.67% increase).

Deposits of Bank VTB (Armenia) hiked by 10.82 to about 154.1 billion drams as of the end of the reporting quarter.

Unibank’s deposits dropped by 6.57% in the period to 113.5 billion drams.

There were 21 commercial banks operating in Armenia as of the end of March. ($1=413.29drams). --0-