February 21, 2022
In a Facebook comment on a recent change of shareholders in Armbusinessbank, Armenia’s former minister of labor andsocial affairs Maneh Tandilyan describes it as a ‘mysterious deal.
According to Tandilyan, one of the new owners of Armbusinessbank, which was in quite a bad financial state according to its financial statements, is a Swisscompany that owns now 75% of the bank’s stake, while the other 25% are owned by the Housing for Young Families state-owned refinancing credit organization,founded by the Central Bank.
Citing Armenia’s Law on the Central Bank, Tandilyan says the deal is a gross violation of the law that bans the regulator from interfering in the activities ofcommercial banks.
“What was the actual purpose of the Central Bank in becoming a shareholder of Armbusinessbank? Why didn’t the Swiss company acquire all 100% of the shares?How much did the Central Bank pay for the purchase of the commercial bank’s shares?” questions Tandilyan, pointing out that the existence of these and manysimilar questions make this transaction non-transparent, accompanied by a clear conflict of interest.
She also touched on the recent appointment of former Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan to the Board of Armbusinessbank.
“I tend to think that Swiss investors appreciated Avinyan’s experience as a loan officer in one of the banks 10 years ago. According to some rumors,Armbusinessbank used to act as an intermediary in suspicious deals of influential representatives of the authorities, which led to its financial problems,” Tandilyanwrote.
She expressed hope that the Central Bank will give proper comments on this mysterious deal and law enforcement bodies will at least look into the facts.
About Armbusinessbank
According to the information placed on the website of the bank, its new shareholders are MFM Global Invest LLC, Switzerland (74,998%) and the refinancingcredit organization Housing for the Young Families, Armenia (25,001%).
Previously, the bank’s shares were owned by citizens Vital Grigoryants (95%) and Arsen Mikayelyan (5 %.)
According to the official data, the bank’s profit in 2021 decreased by 70.31% from the previous year to AMD 537.2 million (approx. $1.12 million) . Its total capital dropped by 4.7% to about AMD 52.7 billion (approx. $109.8 million) , total assets decreased by 1.7% to AMD 88.9 billion (approx. $185.2 million) , and total liabilities decreased by 1.5% to about AMD 83.12 billion (approx. $173.2 million) .
Also, its loan portfolio decreased by 6.3% to AMD 610.2 billion (approx. $1.27 billion) . At the same time, the share of non-performing loans in the total portfolio stood at 1.8% , compared to 2.3% in 2020.
ARKA news agency has request a comment from the Central Bank concerning this deal. ($1 – 479 drams).