Friday, June 25 2010 11:09
Armenian banks deprived of the right to keep independent register of their shareholders
ArmInfo.  The commercial banks operating in the territory of the Republic of Armenia shall have no right to keep an independent register of their shareholders, say the amendments to the laws on banks and banking and on joint stock companies adopted by the National Assembly of Armenia, today.
The changes say that the banks acting as cooperatives and LLCs should give this right to the Central Bank while those having the status of JSC - to third persons. 
The same requirement applies also to the other joint-stock companies. The given definition says that two persons are not considered interdependent if one of them does not hold 20% and more voting shares of the other; over half of the Board of Directors or the director of one person is not a member of the board of directors and is not the director of the other; none of these persons controls over the other and none of them is under control of a third person, one of them does not have any significant influence on the decisions of the other in the line with the norms stipulated by the legal acts of the Central Bank; these persons are not members of the same family. 
The banking market of Armenia encompasses 22 commercial banks, including 18 banks are CJSC, another 3 banks are OJSC and one bank has the status of LLC. A United Register of Securities operate at NASDAQ OMX Armenia.