The Armenian central bank approved the proposed merger between Armenian Development Bank OJSC and ARARATBANK OJSC, Armbanks reported Dec. 20.

Araratbank will become the legal successor of Armenian Development Bank following the integration.

At the end of 2014, the Armenian central bank increased minimum capital requirement for commercial lenders to 30 billion Armenian drams as of Jan. 1, 2017, from 5 billion drams required at the time, with the move resulting in capital hikes and M&A deals across the local banking sector, the news report said.

As of Dec. 20, US$1 was equivalent to 482.68 Armenian drams.