Capital Markets: Armenia Stock Exchange won the “25 Years of Excellence – Capital Market Development Armenia 2026” award, highlighting 25 years of market infrastructure and financing role. Banking & Regulation: The Central Bank raised the countercyclical capital buffer to 2% from 1.75%, effective Feb 1, 2027; Moody’s also affirmed Converse Bank ratings and flipped the outlook to positive. FX & Rates: Armenian FX trading volumes fell for dollars, rubles and euros (July 27-31), with the dram weakening slightly versus the dollar and euro. Digital Finance: Unibank added imID registration for its UNIMobile app, expanding 24/7 account and loan services. State Oversight of Industry: The Anti-Corruption Court transferred state management of Tsarukyan-linked Yerevan Brandy-Wine-Vodka shares; Araratcement appointed a new state manager. Geopolitics With Economic Fallout: Economy Minister Papoyan said Armenia wants the EAEU to remain; Russia’s economic officials dismissed claims of extra payments in the South Caucasus Railway dispute and warned Armenia won’t get comparable gas prices outside the EAEU. Tech & Investment: Firebird’s AI data processing project was described as a major compute push, with large planned GPU investment.