YEREVAN, August 24. /ARKA/. In the first half of 2018 Armenia’s commercial banks increased their reserves for possible losses on loans by 36.7 billion drams or 33.7% to 148 billion drams year-on-year, according to ARKA news agency’s bulletin "Banks of Armenia" for the second quarter of 2018.

In the second quarter of 2018 the reserves increased by 7.2 billion drams or 5.15%. In the second quarter the share of reserves in the credit portfolio of the banks decreased from 5.23% to 5.21%.

The leading five banks by size of reserves for possible losses on loans were Unibank, VTB Bank (Armenia), Ameriabank, ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK and HSBC Bank Armenia.
Unibank's reserves at the end of the first half totaled 35.6 billion drams, having increased by 7.56% from the previous quarter, making 27.82% of its loan portfolio.

The reserves of VTB Bank (Armenia) amounted to 32.5 billion drams (up 5.84%, their share in its lending portfolio was 3.6%), Ameriabank's reserves stood at 14.8 billion drams (down 7.8%, their share in the bank's lending portfolio was 3.02 %), ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK's reserves were worth 13.4 billion drams (a decline of 8.8%, their share in the bank's loan portfolio was 6.54%) and HSBC Bank Armenia's reserves increased by 1.29% to 9.4 billion drams, while their share in the bank's loan portfolio was 9.18%). ($ 1- 483.03 dram) -0-