YEREVAN, April 16. / ARKA /. Armenian banks’ retained profits surged by 6.7 percent  in the first quarter of the year  to 9 billion drams from 8.5 billion drams in the same time span in 2013, according to “Banks of Armenia” financial-economic newsletter, compiled by ARKA news agency.

Profits were posted by 16 banks out of 21 commercial banks operating in Armenia. The other 5 posted losses in the amount of 2.2 billion drams, up from 1.4 billion drams losses reported in the first quarter of 2013. The five top banks accounted for 78.8 percent of all the profits.

The leading bank by size of net profit was HSBC Bank Armenia (1.89 billion drams), which accounted for 21 percent f the net profit of all banks. It was followed by Ardshininvestbank (1.5 billion drams), Ameriabank (1.44 billion drams), Armbusinessbank – 1.13 billion drams and Inecobank –1.16 billion drams.

These five banks’ assets in the reporting period stood at about 3 trillion drams (a 0.24 percent decline year-on-year); their liabilities fell by 0.76 percent to 2.450.3 trillion drams and their total capital grew by 2.5 percent to 481.6 billion drams. ($ 1 - 414.72 drams). -0-