YEREVAN, February 18. /ARKA/. Optimal number of banks serving the Armenian economy should not exceed 10-12, chairman of board and general director of Ameriabank Artak Anesyan said.

At its council meeting on December 30, 2014, the central bank decided to raise the minimum capital requirement for commercial banks from 5 billion drams up o30 billion drams.

This decision will help not only increase capital, but also enhance the stability of the banking system and ensure its further development, as the capital adequacy norm is closer to central bank’s norm now, and the system cannot go on developing in tune with the economy, Anesyan said.

Head of development at Ameriabank Tigran Jrbashyan, in his turn, said the bank consolidation process is underway, with low motivation level in credit organizations though.

According to Jrbashyan, the next two years will be a period of market consolidation – mergers, acquisitions, new actors with new statuses and possibilities.

Consolidation is not an end in itself, but a tool to raise efficiency, Jrbashyan said.

Low funding levels will be recorded in the market in the near future as it is the time to get prepared, to recover and consolidate now, he said.

There are currently 21 commercial banks operating in Armenia, with only five of them having their capital in line with the new requirement. The capital of another twelve banks ranges between 10 billion and 30 billion drams. Four banks have their capital below 10 billion drams. This means some sixteen banks will have to seek means to meet the central bank requirement in the next two years.

As of the end of 2014, total assets of Armenia’s commercial banks amounted to about 3,410.6 billion drams (16.1% growth); liabilities were 2,921.8 billion drams (18.3% growth), total capital was 488.7 billion drams (4.2% increase), loan investments 2,162.9 billion drams (21.2% increase) and net profit was 27.1 billion drams (41.3% decrease).  ($1 – 479.06 drams). -0-