If Ameriabank does list on LSE, it would be the first Armenian bank, or company even, to be publicly traded on a Western stock exchange. In the South Caucasus it would be the second publicly traded bank after Bank of Georgia.

Ameriabank’s chairman Andrew Mkrtchyan said the bank plans an IPO in the next two or three years.

“Our aspiration is an IPO (initial public offering) and to try to triple our balance sheet in the next three years,” Mr Mkrtchyan told Reuters.

The EBRD said it paid $30m for an equity stake of around 20% in Ameriabank and has pledged an additional $10m for the bank’s asset growth.

“This is the largest single-ticket equity deal the EBRD has signed in the region to date,” the EBRD said in a statement.

By becoming a shareholder, the EBRD has committed to growing the bank in Armenia.

“As a shareholder the EBRD will support Ameriabank’s development, with a special emphasis on corporate governance,” Mark Davis, head of the EBRD Yerevan office, said.

The World Bank’s IFC also provided Ameriabank with a $50m loan to increase its lending capacity.

For Armenia, the investments by the EBRD and the IFC are a vote of confidence in its banking sector and are especially important at a time when currencies and economies in the region are depreciating or falling back on earlier growth spurts.

For foreign investors, an Ameriabank IPO would give them a chance to buy into an Armenian corporation for the first time.