Armenia's commercial banks to finalize 2009 with a profit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Commercial banks will finalize 2009 with a profit, Emil Soghomonyan , chairman of the Union of Banks of Armenia said.



According to Soghomonyan, Armenia's commercial banks have finalized the first half year at a profit, amounted to 4.4 billion (about U.S. $ 12 million), which is very low indicator, since the profit of the banking system in 2008 amounted to 28 billion drams.



"We expected that in the first half of 2009 the profit will be about 14 billion drams, along weith the growth of the loan portfolio of banks," he said.



According to him, out of the 22 commercial banks of Armenia 16 have had profit, and only 6 have suffered losses. "The losses of banks were caused by the return to a floating exchange rate," Soghomonyan said.