YEREVAN, November 20. / ARKA /. Armenia’s Central Bank said today it has awarded a license to AMUNDI-ACBA ASSET MANAGEMENT jsc to run Armenian investment funds.

The regulator said its Board had registered AMUNDI-ACBA ASSET MANAGEMENT on November 19.

On November 18 finance minister David Sargsyan said French Amundi and German Talanx had been selected by Armenian government to take over as managers of Armenian pension funds. According to Sargsyan, annual pension savings in Armenia in 2014 are expected to be between $100 million and $150 million.

Deputy head of the Central Bank, Nerses Yeritsyan, said the managing companies are allowed to place 40 percent of the assets outside Armenia and 60% inside Armenia.

ACBA -CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK (formerly the Agricultural Cooperative Bank of Armenia) was established in 1995 as part of the EU TACIS program. In September 2006, the French Credit Agricole bought a large stake in it becoming its largest shareholder.

With more than 750 billion euros in assets under management, Amundi is one of the world market leaders in asset management. It has management teams operating in the major financial centres in Europe (Paris, London, Milan), in Asia (Japan, Hong-Kong, Singapore) and the US.

Amundi has more than 2,000 distribution agreements with leading platforms in Europe and Asia. One of its partners is the French Credit Agricole Bank. -0-