YEREVAN, February 4. /ARKA/. Armenian transport and communications minister Gurgen Sarkisian said today the PostBank will open its first branches in Yerevan in spring.

Earlier the chief manager of Haypost Trust Management company, Juan Pablo Gechidjian, said PostBank would offer its services by the end of the first half of 2010.

Speaking to journalists today, minister Sarkisian said PostBank’s branches will be established on the basis of Haypost (Armenian Post) divisions in all regions of the country to make its services more accessible to the citizens.

Establishment of PostBank is part of a $12 million worth project designed to modernize Armenia’s post services until 2012. In 2008 September Armenian Central Bank agreed to grant Armenian PostBank a license for providing banking services.

The PostBank with a 5 billion Drams charter capital is owned fully by an Argentinean Armenian businessman Eduardo Eurnekian, who is the owner of American International Airports, that was given the concessional management of Yerevan Zvartnots airport. He owns also the Converse Bank.

Under a 2006 November agreement HayPost was placed under the trust management of Dutch

Haypost Trust Management for a 5 year term . The contract may be prolonged for another five year. -0-