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On September 24, at the initiative of the RA NA Prosperous Armenia Faction parliamentary hearings on the theme The Credit Problems of Use of Penalties, Fines and Credit Interest Rates, Their Pardoning and Other Problems Towards Credits and Expired Other Obligations were held, where deputies, representatives of the Government, the CB and the HRD Staffs and NGOs took part.

In his opening remarks the Secretary of the RA NA Prosperous Armenia Faction Arman Abovyan has welcomed the participants of the hearings and has underlined that the theme is topical, and the meetings of their Faction with the citizens testify to that. According to him, the goal of the hearings is to solve those problems. To Arman Abovyan’s assessment on objective and subjective reasons there is economic crisis in our country, and the credits given before do not correspond with the real situation in the country. During this period the citizens lost their jobs, and some spheres appeared in difficult situation. The Secretary of the Faction has agreed that it is not possible to rectify the created situation without radical steps. He proposed to observe the possibility of investing a pardon system, adding that there shall be direct subsidy by the state. Arman Abovyan touched upon the international experience, presenting particularly the examples of Russia, Australia, Canada, Italy, Singapore, Great Britain, Spain and the USA.

The RA NA Deputy Speaker Vahe Enfiajyan has considered one of the key items the workstyle of the credit and making organisations in the RA within the framework of competitiveness and reality, which to him, has not existed in our country through many years. The rapporteur has noted that the conditions, the interest rates and contracts being proposed to the citizens and the legal persons often promote not the improvement of the business or the settlement of any everyday problem, but a policy leading to deteriorating rates is carried out. As the NA Deputy Speaker has informed about 43 credit and 17 banking organisations are registered in Armenia.

According to Vahe Enfiajyan, the Faction wants not only to voice the problems existing in the sphere, but also have indicated the ways of solving them. According to the Deputy Speaker, the Faction has repeatedly presented its political vision of implementing appropriate policy in overcoming the hard situation created in the most different spheres. In the rapporteur’s opinion, the credit holiday is an inevitable process, which will promote the mitigation of the situation.

The NA Deputy Speaker expressed readiness to make legislative initiatives in case of need for recuperation of the processes going on in the disputable spheres.

According to the Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Regional and Eurasian Integration Mikayel Melkumyan, the country is in hard critical situation and the important thing is the RA citizen’s well being.

Mikayel Melkumyan emphasized the reasonable ideology in the credit policy. The Committee Chair also talked about the credit holidays, pardon, the right management of the budgetary means during the created situation as a consequence of pandemic and presented the position of the Faction.

The key rapporteur the RA CB Deputy Chair Nerses Yeritsyan presented statistical data, opined that the mass credit holiday would result in great macroeconomic, financial and moral losses, recording that the credit holidays could not last long. According to him, as the world experience shows it can result in negative change of way of thinking: the borrowers cannot pay, thinking that pardon will be granted in the future. The rapporteur has documented that the banks are mediators, they involve deposits, at the expense of which they carry out crediting. The CB Deputy Chairman also talked about the decent borrowers’ rights.

Summing up his speech, Nerses Yeritsyan has informed that they propose to invest a concept of responsible crediting. To his assessment, as a result of crises, the financial system always bears the price of uncertainties and shocks. The rapporteur has underlined that both by the Constitution and legislation, besides the taxes and compulsory state payments it is not possible to lay other financial burden on the private owners.

The Chair of the RA NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Arkady Khachatryan considered the issue important and sensitive. In the MP’s opinion, the state must look at the issue multilaterally and make balanced decisions.

The Chair of the RA NA Standing Committee Babken Tunyan touched upon the cancelation of the credits, the provision of the credit holidays, the levying of the interest rate, etc. The MP sees the solution of the issue as a result of state-borrowers-banking system cooperation.

The RA HRD Arman Tatoyan has noted that the structure carries out monitoring and does some works for solving issues related to human rights.

Arman Tatoyan highlighted the rise of the level of awareness in the banking system, the simplification of the signing contracts, as well as urged the citizens to study the documents to be signed by them.

In their speeches and interpellations, the MPs and the participants of the hearings touched upon the control towards the activities of a number of credit organisations, the possible super-profits of the credit organisations, the control being implemented by the CB towards the mediator organisations carrying out attractive advertisement and having no license, the possibility of depriving some credit organizations from the license, the policy being pursued by the CB towards the decent borrowers appeared at the edge of bankruptcy because of pandemic, ensuring stability of banking system, the risks of providing holidays, etc.

In their final speeches Mikayel Melkumyan, Vahe Enfiajyan and Arman Abovyan stressed the importance of the discussions and touched upon the voiced questions and the provisions emphasized by the participants of the discussion.