CBA PERMITS ARTSAKHBANK TO PARTICIPATE IN MASTERCARD SYSTEM

Arka News Agency, Armenia
April 11 2007

YEREVAN, April 10. /ARKA/. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) permitted
Artsakhbank CJSC to participate in the MasterCard international
payment and account system. The respective decision was made by the
CBA’s Council, CBA’s press service reported.

Artsakhbank CJSC was founded by the decree of President of
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) on the basis of Sberbank in December
1995. CBA issued a general license to Artsakhbank on 10.31.96.

According to the official balance data as of December 31 2006, the
bank total capital made AMD 3,962.3mln, its total assets amounted to
AMD 22,881.1mln and the credit portfolio AMD 12,547.4mln. The balance
sheet profit on the capital made AMD 1,327.4mln with profit amounting
to AMD 1,012 as of the end of 2006.

According to CBA, 209,113 plastic cards were in circulation in Armenia
as of the beginning of 2007.

11,817 MasterCards issued by Armenian banks were in circulation.

The Armenian Card national payment system became a full member of
MasterCard payment system in December 2002 and gained the right to
issue and serve EuroCards/MasterCards and CirrusMaestro cards. The
founder banks received the right to become its associated members. 19
commercial banks are currently members of Armenian Card. ($1=
AMD363.78).