YEREVAN, October 27. / ARKA /. VTB Bank (Armenia) was the leading bank in the country in terms of credit investments in the third quarter of 2014 with a loan portfolio growing to 224.3 billion drams, an increase of 3.3 percent compared with the beginning of the year.

The Russian-owned bank accounted for 11.8 percent of the overall lending provided by all the banks in the third quarter.

"VTB Bank (Armenia) continues to fund construction, food and agriculture sectors, as well as trade and commerce, developing concurrently POS-lending, mortgage and car loans," the bank said in a press release.

Besides, the bank's assets in the third quarter grew by 2.2 percent from the beginning of the year to about 306 billion drams, the press release says.

VTB Bank (Armenia) CEO Yuri Gusev was quoted as saying that improvement of loan products, facilitation of customer access to bank resources, flexible and wide range of loan products have been instrumental in achieving good indicators.

VTB Bank (Armenia) is owned fully by Russian VTB Bank. It runs 67 branches across Armenia, more than any other local bank.

The bank's liabilities as of October 1, 2014 stood at 260.8 billion drams and its capital – at about 45.6 billion drams. In the third quarter it earned 870.8 million drams in net profit, by 78% less from the year before. ($ 1 - 409.29 drams). -0