Tuesday, January 13 2015 16:54
Central Bank of Armenia punishes panic-mongers and currency profiteers
ArmInfo. The Central Bank of Armenia has punished the panic- mongers and currency profiteers, but the inspections have not been completed: a list of 178 exchange offices has been prepared for 2015. According to the CBA data provided to ArmInfo, the list includes the exchange offices located at large supermarkets, trade centers and hotels. It will be checked whether the exchange offices violate the relevant criteria or not and whether they meet the relevant standards and requirements.
The 170 inspections conducted in Nov-Dec 2014 revealed violations at 16 banks and 12 exchange offices. The banks faced penalties and warnings, and some of the exchange offices were even deprived of their licenses. About 40 mln AMD of the penalties will be transferred to the state budget. In the meantime, 23 financial organizations received a warning, and the licenses of three exchange offices were withdrawn.
The CBA warns that the administrative proceedings of the cases related to the latest developments in the forex market are still going on. The violations registered at the banks and exchange offices will be discussed at the session of the Commission for Licensing and Supervision of the Armenian Central Bank.
From Oct through Dec 17, 2014, AMD dropped against USD by 45%, Dec 18-20 it grew by 25%. On Dec 22 it started dropping again. On Dec 30, 2014, the rate was 474 AMD against 1 USD, 583 AMD against 1 EUR, 8.5 AMD against 1 RUR. For comparison it should be noted that on Dec 20 the rates were 455 AMD, 555 AMD and 7.8 AMD, respectively, versus 570 AMD, 712 AMD and 8.6 AMD, respectively, on Dec 17. On Jan 13, 2015 the AMD/USD exchange rate in the retail currency market rose to 478 AMD/$1, AMD/EUR exchange rate dropped to 569 AMD/EUR, the AMD/RUR exchange rate dropped to 8 AMD/1 RUR. On Jan 13 the optimal rates at the banks were as follows: USD was bought for 475 AMD/$1 (ceiling price) and sold for 479 AMD/$1 (bottom price), EUR was bought for 563 AMD/EUR and sold for 565 AMD/EUR and RUR was bought for 7.55 AMD/RUR and sold for 7.72 AMD/RUR.
At NASDAQ OMX Armenia, from June through December 27, 2014, foreign exchange operations amounted to $406.6 million drams with the exchange rate growing from 407.14 to 560 AMD/1 USD, then dropping to 442.44 AMD/1USD and rising to 470 AMD/1USD on Dec 27. The transactions in November alone totaled nearly $117 million drams. On 1-5 Dec, the interbank market of foreign exchange operations registered a record-breaking indicator - $59.3 million. Since the launch of its daily interventions - from Dec 8 through Dec 27 - the CB sold on the interbank forex market a total of $54.7mln: $6mln a day Dec 8-12, $4mln a day Dec 15-17, $1.7mln Dec 20, $1mln Dec 22, and $2mln Dec 23-27. On Jan 12 and 13, 2015, no transactions were registered at NASDAQ OMX Armenia, while on the interbank market the banks' operations amounted to 2.2 mln USD on Jan 12, 2015.
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