YEREVAN, September 8. /ARKA/. The liquidity of Armenian banks significantly exceeds the regulatory requirements of the Central Bank, Chairman of the Central Bank  Martin Galstyan told reporters on Tuesday.

According to him, today the banking sector's capital adequacy ratio is 17.2%, well above the required 12%.

He said the figure does  not include the risks that have accumulated as a result of the three-month“ credit holiday”. At the same time, the absolute capital index is about 900 billion drams, Galstyan said.

As for the ratio of liquid funds to assets, it is now 26.6%, while the standard figure is 15%.

“The ratio of highly liquid assets to liquid liabilities is 60%, and the figure of the banks are twice as high. This means that  the Armenian banks' liquid assets are much higher than the requirements of the Central Bank," Galstyan said.

At the same time, he noted that the Central Bank has already softened the standard of proportionality of fixed capital, reducing it from the originally  planned 10%  to 9%. It is  also considering the possibility of reducing the standard of proportionality of capital from the current 12%.

According to him, the banks were given appropriate impulses to use the existing capital buffers and continue lending.

He stressed that the Central Bank announced its readiness to provide the necessary liquidity to the banking system, and since March there has been no case when the financial system asked for  liquidity and the Central Bank did not y provide it.

Today there are 17 commercial banks in Armenia. ($ 1 - 488.12 drams). -0-