It is not excluded that in the future the possibility of licensing investment banks in Armenia will be created. This was stated by the candidate for the governor of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) and the acting governor of the CBA, Martin Galstyan, during the debates on the matter of electing a new CBA governor at Monday’s meeting of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs of the National Assembly.

At the same time, however, Galstyan refrained from specifying specific time frames in this regard. According to the acting governor of the CBA, there are already conceptual documents that are ready for discussion. In particular, if the regulator allows new players to enter Armenia’s banking sector—for example, if investment companies are allowed to provide additional services, the CBA must be sure that from the point of view of combating money laundering, these services will have the same quality as those of existing banks in Armenia.

However, it should be noted that there are no such licenses in Armenia yet.

“Now we are discussing options so that our licenses have a ‘Lego-structure,’” Galstyan said.

At present, there are 17 banks operating in Armenia.