YEREVAN, March 25. / ARKA /. VTB Bank (Armenia) expects its mortgage lending portfolio to increase by 10-20% in 2015 to about 3 billion drams, the head of the bank's retail business department Artak Khachatryan told a news conference today. He said last year the bank issued 17.4 billion drams worth mortgage loans.

According to Khachatryan, a government-designed program to refund income taxes to persons repaying mortgage loans will have a very positive impact both on the banking system and the construction sector.

According to Artak Khachatryan, the decision is expected to increase both their mortgage lending portfolio as well as the total mortgage lending by local banks from 10-20% this year.

He said all types of mortgage loans such as for repair and construction of homes, purchase of homes in newly-built residential buildings and private homes are expected to surge.

According to the Central Bank, the amount of mortgage lending by commercial banks to residents grew last year by about 21 percent from the previous year to 172.4 billion drams.

VTB Bank (Armenia) is a 100% subsidiary of Russian VTB Bank. It runs 67 branch offices throughout Armenia, more than any other local bank.

The bank’s assets in late 2014 stood at 379.6 billion drams (a 25.6% year-on-year increase); its liabilities were worth 334.8 bln drams (26.3% growth), total capital stood at 44.7 bln drams (20.2% growth), loan investments – were worth about 244.3 bln drams (11.6% increase). The 2014 profit of the bank amounted to 777.14 mln drams, as compared to 5.6 bln drams in 2013. -0-