Armenian Parliament amends Law "On financial ombudsman" in first reading

ArmInfo. On December 21, the Armenian Parliament amended the law "On financial ombudsman" in the first reading. 

Earlier Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Nerses Yeritsyan said that the bill aimed to protect the consumers' rights, settling 2 groups of problems.

First, the commercial banks and credit organizations shall observe relevant rules of customer service. If the rules are violated, the financial institutions may pay a 300 thsd AMD fine to the customers by the financial ombudsman's decision. Until very recently, the customers of financial institutions had no opportunity to apply to the financial ombudsman. Under the amendments, the customers can apply to the financial ombudsman for free.

Second, the customers will get an opportunity to submit their personal data not only to the commercial banks or credit organizations but also to the credit bureau, which, in turn, shall pay 140 thsd AMD to the financial ombudsman for considering the customers' complaints. The amendments were initiated due to the bank customers' complaints. The matter concerns the cases when the mistakes in the customers' surnames and a number of other reasons deteriorated their credit histories.