YEREVAN, September 30. / ARKA /. For the first time three Armenian banks have appeared  in the list of 200 largest banks in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), compiled by RIA Rating agency, which is part of Russia Today international news agency.

Of 21 Armenia-based commercial banks with a total of .3.4 trillion drams ($8.1 billion) worth assets only three found place in the list. They are-Ameriabank, which is on the 166th position ($0.84 billion worth assets), Ardshinbank  (179th,,  $0.77 bln.) and VTB Bank (Armenia) -181st with $ 0.76 bln worth assets.

According to RIA Rating agency’s analysts, the appearance of three Armenian banks in the list came after a great number of Russian and Ukrainian banks were removed from it. According to 2014 data, eight Russian banks were removed from the list which now has 122 Russia-based credit institutions. The number of Ukrainian banks has slashed by one third.

According to the analysts of the rating, the expanded geography of countries represented in the ranking comes after the minimum amount of assets necessary to qualify for the ranking  was cut from  0.96 billion USD  in 2014 to 0.67 billion USD in 2015, prompted primarily by a strong devaluation of the national currencies of several countries, including Russian ruble.

According to the agency, Russian banks account for 60.5% banks of the list, second are  Kazakh banks, which make  10.5%,  Ukrainian banks are third ( 9.5%), Azerbaijani banks account for 5%, banks in  Belarus and Uzbekistan make  4.5% each respectively, while Armenia, Georgia and Moldova account each for  1.5% and  the Turkmen banks make 1%.

The total assets of the 200 largest banks in the CIS by 1 January 2015, according to  RIA Rating analysts, were worth $1.47 trillion, by $355 billion  less than a  year earlier.

Last year, according to RIA Rating, the total assets of the banking systems in the CIS decreased by 21.3% to $1.7 trillion, against a growth of 9.3% and 23.1% in 2013 and 2012 respectively.

The negative dynamics of  the CIS banking sector is due to two major trends: the devaluation of national currencies and the bankruptcy of a large number of insolvent banks. Moreover, the strongest devaluation was reported in countries with the largest  banking assets - Russia and Ukraine.

Data for the ranking were taken from open sources - financial statements of banks, as well as statistical bulletins and other publications of the central banks of the CIS countries in 2014.
The ranking includes the largest lending institutions of ten countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. 0-