Thursday, May 25 2017 15:41

ArmInfo. Armenian office of  Finance Ombudsman pretty effectively resolves disputes between  natural persons and financial organizations. Such an opinion was  expressed by the qualified Italian mediator Corrado Mora on May 25,  answering a question from ArmInfo, who arrived in Yerevan on May  25-26 at the annual 7th conference on "Strengthening public  confidence to Finance Ombudsman Institute and increasing the role of  financial intermediation."

"It is not the first year we cooperate with Armenian partners. I can  say that it is us, who have something to take from Armenian Finance  Ombudsman in resolution of disputes between natural persons and  financial organizations," he added.

According to him, Armenia formed optimal, well organized atmosphere,  where banks, insurance companies, Central Bank and Finance Ombudsman  can quickly respond to the problems and find solutions.  "You have  what we do not have," Mora stressed. Particularly, he informed that  Italian policy mostly faces complaints in insurance from medical  mistakes and in bank sector on high interest rates. 

For her part, the head of the Armenian office of financial ombudsman  Piruz Sargsyan noted that in Armenia traditionally leadership in the  number of complaints continues to be held by the insurance sector,  with an average annual growth of 20%. Answering the question of  ArmInfo,  Sargsyan stated that from January to May 21 2017, Finance  Ombudsman office  received 723 written claims. 357 of them got  their  decisions, and in 86.6% of cases the decisions were made in favor of  the client. Approximately 45 million AMD were reimbursed to the  applicants.

"The main part of the complaints refer to Third Party Liability  Insurance, which in their turn  are divided into 3 groups. In  particular, these claims  are about the  amount of compensation from  the damage inflicted, cases of non-payment by insurance companies of  reimbursements, and differences of parties to the conflict over the  measure of responsibility and the subject of its assignment, "she  added. On the second place, according to the Fin Ombudsman,  are  complaints related to the banking sector, in particular fraud with  bank cards, legal relations in the framework of consumer loans,  deposits, etc.

According to the  statistics, Sargsyan noted that the recognition and  trust of the public to the institution of the financial mediator has  significantly increased. In this regard, she noted that about 6,000  complaints are registered annually, 1600 of which are in written form  . "On average, over 70% of submitted claims can be resolved annually  in favor of the applicants," she said, adding that since the  establishment of the Finance Ombudsman Institute in Armenia from  January 24, 2009 to May 21 2017 the office received 17,414 claims  against financial organizations, and the total volume of  compensations paid to individuals exceeded 1 billion drams.

To note, Finance Ombudsman services, active in Armenia from the  beginning of 2009 are free, and financial organizations themselves  pay for its work. Armenian Finance Ombudsman experience, gained  during 8 years functioning of this institute in the country, is  announced the best in CIS by international partners.