Yerevan /Mediamax/. Role of banks in Armenian economy is insignificant and they have not become a locomotive for the country’s development so far, former Chairman of the Central Bank (CB) of Armenia Bagrat Asatryan stated. 

Mediamax reports that, speaking at a news conference in Yerevan today, Bagrat Asatryan stated that correlation of the banks’ credit portfolio and GDP of Armenia does not exceed 20-25% today. 

“In the formed situation, system problems of Armenia are to be blamed, especially the big volumes of shadow economy. The criminal-oligarchic system of the economy, formed in Armenia, is self-sufficient. It has its own shadow financial flows and does not need a transparent financial system”, Bagrat Asatryan stated. 

Speaking of the expected increase of the minimum volume of credit organization’s capital, former Chairman of CB expressed an opinion that this will hinder development of small credit organizations, functioning in individual settlements of Armenia, which are not of great interests for banks. 

Bagrat Asatryan stated that instead of demanding increase of the minimum volumes of credit organizations’ capital, one should toughen the standard of capital adequacy, “which would be much more logical”.