YEREVAN, Feb 1. /ARKA/. Armenian Central Bank Chairman Martin Galstyan told journalists today that Armenia-based commercial banks are using the profits they earned last year to build up their buffers, while the Central Bank’s prudential decisions contribute to deepening this trend.

"We in the Central Bank discussed the issue of raising the countercyclical capital buffer by 0.5%. I hope we will publish this decision soon. It is currently under discussion at the Ministry of Justice," he said.

On October 10, the Central Bank Board decided to set the countercyclical capital buffer for banks to strengthen their resilience during periods of stress at 1% of risk-weighted assets. The decision comes into force on May 1, 2023.

The volume of bank deposits grew by 43%,  Martin Galstyan said. "The number of deposits of residents grew by 29.4% and that of  non-residents by  96.3%. In terms of absolute figures, the volume of deposits of residents as of December 31, 2022 amounted to 3.379 trillion drams and those of non-residents – to 1.287 trillion drams," Galstyan said.($1 - 396.02 drams). -0-