ArmInfo. Within the framework of the amnesty of fines and penalties on bad loans from June 2018, Armenian banks have forgiven the obligations of 19,000 individuals in total amounting to 9.5 billion AMD. This was reported to ArmInfo in the press service of the Union of Banks of Armenia (UBA).
The UBA explained that on June 11, 2018, the RA government, led by Nikol Pashinyan, made a decision to start a series of legislative reforms and initiatives to improve the business environment and increase the efficiency of tax administration. As part of this, it was envisaged to give banks the opportunity, without incurring the cost of paying taxes, to grant amnesty to individuals-debtors of fines and penalties on loans considered as uncollectible as of May 31, 2018.
The UBA, after analysing the statistics of this amnesty, concluded that this initiative of the RA government, implemented by banks, had a significant beneficial effect. "It is worth noting that banks, as a rule, apply an individual approach when forgiving fines and penalties on loans. But the massive amnesty has only a situational rationale and the application of this legal provision was provided for a certain period, therefore, the population should be guided by the principles of faithful fulfilment of credit obligations and making payments within the time limits set by the contract, "the UBA reports.
To note, on July 2, 2018 Prime Minister held a meeting with bankers in the government of the Republic of Armenia in order to practically address the issue of concessions to fines and penalties on overdue loans. On the same day, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank and Ameriabank announced the cancellation of fines and penalties on hopeless loans to individuals, then IDBank (July 4), VTB Bank (Armenia) (July 4) and Ardshinbank (July 6) and Converse Bank (July 11) announced joining the process. The rest of the banks also joined later.