World’s largest bank considers to start direct business with Armenian peers

JP Morgan Chase (the world’s largest bank by market capitalization) considers to start working with Armenian banks.

Several Armenian and international banking industry professionals, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told that negotiations are in their initial to intermediate stage and are not to be concluded in the immediate future. However, this is not the first time that JP Morgan is weighing the possibilities to open correspondent accounts of Armenian banks, industry professionals told at the margins of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) 2024 Annual meeting in Yerevan.

Today, the only US bank which keeps direct links with Armenian banks is Citibank, which keeps providing these services for many years.

This is all the more remarkable that several years ago, one of the largest German banks discontinued such activity in the country, citing small market size as his primary concern.

A number of other European banks continue working with Armenian banks. But when it comes to US dollar (not euro) transactions, direct links with the US banks may help to lower their costs (as no middlemen from third countries will be sitting in between the US and Armenian banks).