YEREVAN, December 22. /ARKA/. The second wave of banks’ mergers is expected in Armenia, Ashot Osipayn, Araratbank executive director, told journalists on Wednesday.

In late 2014, the Central Bank of Armenia obliged commercial banks to have the capital amounting at least to AMD 30 billion (the current requirement is AMD 5 billion). The new requirement comes into force on January 1, 2017.

To comply with the regulator’s requirement, banks in Armenia started replenishing their capital.

Some banks merged. As a result, of 21 banks, only 17 remained.

“The first round of mergers has already completed, and now we expect the second round,” Osipyan said. “This is a normal phenomenon in the banking system integration.”

In his opinion, no more than 10 or 11 banks should operate in Armenia. Pointing out Baltic countries as an example, he said that there are eight to ten banks in each of them.

Osipyan said the number of banks’ branches is growing in Armenia, but he thinks this process will slow down because of introduction of e-banking services. The same is going on in Europe. --0---