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It is designed by the amendment being proposed to the law on Currency Regulation and Currency Control that the banks and the loan organizations, consumer loans and credits, the housing mortgage credits can provide only in the RA drams, and non-resident persons’ (except the case of having the RA resident co-borrower) housing mortgage credits also with currency.

The initiative authored by the deputies of the NA Civil Contract Faction Gevorg Papoyan, Arusyak Manavazyan and Narek Grigoryan was debated in the first reading at January 30 sitting of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs.

At present, the RA resident citizens can receive mortgage loans in any currency. According to Gevorg Papoyan, as a consequence of currency fluctuations, big risks arise on paying the credits. “In Armenia the exchange rate is floating, and the Central Bank (CB) and the Government do not have any policy of fixing it. We are not going either to interfere it or spend the reserves on preserving the exchange rate,” the co-author underlined and added that it will be possible to reduce the risks through providing credits only in drams.

Speaking about the pursuing state policy, Gevorg Papoyan noted that the state involves much debt in drams and drams, and little in currency.

The first sentence of Article 7.2 of the law is composed by the initiative with the following edition: “On the territory of the Republic of Armenia the deals of the currency buying or selling, including the deals with the conditions set by part 1 of this Article, are carried out through specialized persons and investment companies, which implement currency buying and selling in cases and order set by the sub-legislative normative legal acts by the law on Securities’ Market and (or) on its basis.”

The CB Deputy Governor Hovhannes Khachatryan voiced the positive position of the Government on the initiative. According to him, during the debates the representatives of the banks presented observations. “At present, there are mortgage credits in currency of 133 billion AMD,” the rapporteur underlined.

The revised draft law on the basis of the Government proposals was approved by the Committee.

A decision was made to hold a joint sitting of the Standing Committees on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs and on Territorial Administration, Local Self-Government, Agriculture and Environment on February 9, at 15:00, in the NA hall 334 to debate the current conclusion of the Audit Chamber on the results of the performance audit towards the forest use process in the RA Ministry of Environment.