YEREVAN, April 2, /ARKA/. NASDAQ OMX Armenia stock exchange has launched today a new market of so-called overnight credit resources. Armen Melikian, NASDAQ OMX Armenia’s chief director, said it has become possible due to cooperation with the Central Bank and commercial banks, which are members of the stock exchange.

Thanks to this new service, NASDAQ OMX Armenia will now provide an exchange platform for interbank credits, a large segment of the Armenian financial market, thus contributing to the transparent and fair pricing of credit resources, as well as equities, debt instruments, and currency.

‘The new market begins operating and this means that the price of money will be defined through trading at the stock exchange,’ Armen Melikian said. He explained that overnight credits are credits for one day. The new service will be available only for banks which are members of the exchange. Credits offered in the market will be denominated in Armenian Drams; the credit amount must be a multiple of AMD 10,000,000. Like for all other exchange traded instruments, the trading will be organized through a two-side continuous anonymous auction. Pre-deposition of funds will be required, but only from the lender.

NASDAQ OMX Armenia is the new name of the Armenian Stock Exchange ojsc (renamed on January 27, 2009), however, it is also used to refer jointly to the stock exchange and the Central Depository of Armenia (CDA), as the both companies have been members of the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. since early 2008.

NASDAQ OMX Armenia and the CDA are the major securities market infrastructure institutions in Armenia. Since their inception in 2000, both companies had operated as self-regulatory organizations established by member broker companies, up until demutualization in 2007. NASDAQ OMX Armenia is part of the world's largest exchange company, the NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. -0-