YEREVAN, October 24, /ARKA/. The Russian-owned Areximbank-Gazprombank Group said today the amount of remittances in foreign currencies made by using SWIFT system in the first 9 months of the year grew by 63% from the year before.

It said remittances to Armenia increased by 35% and from Armenia by 78%. The bulk of remittances came and went to the Russian Federation, which was followed by the United States, the United Arab Emirates and China.

Areximbank-Gazprombank Group carries out also international money transfers without account opening by using MONEYGRAM, ANELIK, Express Mail, UNISTREAM, AVERS, INTELEXPRESS, SIGUE MONEY TRANSFER, RIA MONEY TRANSFER systems. It also uses Gazprom Express system to make registered remittances from Russia to Armenia, as well as instant money transfers between Russia and Armenia via ATMs by using two international cards tied to one card account.

The bank’s assets as of September 30 stood at 130 million drams, a decline of 44.3 percent from the beginning of the year. Its liabilities slashed by 48.32 percent to 109.6 billion drams; the capital fell by 4.41 percent to 20.4 billion drams, credit investments dropped by 19.13 percent to 75 billion drams.

In the third quarter the bank saw 941.2 million drams in losses against 413 million drams in profit from the year before.

Areximbank established in 1998 is owned fully by Russian Gazprombank ($ - 408.67 drams).