Yerevan/Mediamax/. Process of “Ameriabank” and “Cascade Bank” merger under “Ameriabank” brand is planned to be completed this year, General Director of “Ameriabank” Artak Anesyan stated today.

Mediamax reports that, speaking at the joint news conference with Executive Director of “Cascade Bank” Aharon Levonyan, Artak Anesyan did not comment on what shares “TDA Holdings Limited” (the only shareholder of “Ameriabank”) and “Cascade Capital Holdings” (the only owner of “Cascade Bank”) will have in “Ameriabank”, noting that information will be provided on this later on.

According to Anesyan, customers of both banks will benefit from the merger, since it will allow expanding the range of services and significantly increasing economy crediting.

Answering the question on why both banks refuted rumors on the possible merger last year, the representatives of both banks stated that the negotiations, which had started last year, were postponed because of the economic crisis. “Now, after successfully overcoming the obstacles, created by the crisis, we have returned to the negotiation table”, Artak Anesyan stated.

 “Consolidation of the Armenian banking sector is a natural process, since for a market with the volume of only $3bln (banking assets), the presence of 22 banks often hinders development of the sector”, Executive Director of “Cascade Bank” Aharon Levonyan stated.

Answering the question of Mediamax, Artak Anesyan did not rule out that further on the new bank may also include “Cascade Investments”, but ruled out the possibility of merger with “Cascade Insurance” company, accounting this for the fact that “Ameriabank” does not intend to deal with insurance business.