BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 29
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Fifteen commercial banks operating in Georgia lost a total of 613 million lari ($201.3 million) during the first five months of 2020, Trend reports referring to National Bank of Georgia (NBG).
The reserves of 1.2 billion lari ($394.06 million) for possible losses made by the banks have become the main reason for the loss, said the report.
In total, Georgian commercial banks have saved 1.22 billion lari ($400.6 million) in the buffer of possible losses of assets, which reflects the amount of possible losses on loans due to the expected crisis.
NBG noted that in previous years, the sector was highly profitable, allowing banks to create adequate volumes of buffers, which can be used during such a crisis.
As for operating activities, in May 2020, the total income of 15 banks reached 362 million lari ($188.8 million), an increase of 1 percent year-on-year, and interest income made up 306 million lari ($100.4 million), which is 6 percent more comparing to the last year. The main factor of growth is increase of business lending by 18 percent.
The revenues from private individuals’ lending declined by 4 percent, which is related to the delay of citizens’ loan program by the banks.
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