YEREVAN, July 22, /ARKA/.  Bagrat Asatrian, a  former governor of Armenia’s Central Bank,  slammed today the  Central  Bank for seeking to increase the  minimum amount of universal credit organizations’ capital  from the current 150 million Drams to 1 billion Drams.

Mr. Asatrian, who is now head  of Garni Invest universal crediting organization,  told a news conference  that the chief of the Central Bank department  in charge of financial policy and management,  Vahe Vardanian, sent him July 17 a package of proposed changes and amendments to two procedures regulating the activity of universal crediting organizations demanding that he present his  suggestions and remarks concerning the proposed changes  on July 19. According to Asatrian, it is absurd to  expect suggestions about an important procedure to be made in one day. He said he was extremely concerned about the Central Bank’s desire to increase the amount of the minimum capital six times.

In his words, the minimum amount must be in tune with the state of the economy and financial field.
He argued that the move is dictated either by the plans of  several oligarchs who want  to grab this sector or the banks are lobbying for their interests by trying to oust universal crediting organizations from the market.

‘People use their personal funds to open universal crediting organizations. Do they pose any threat to the public? Many countries do not set  minimum amount of capital at all,’ he said.

The Central Bank press service told ARKA that a bill calling for raising the minimum amount of capital has been debated for nine months and is not a novelty and many crediting organizations proposed their suggestions. It also said the idea to increase the amount of capital is meant to protect the interests of consumers. The 1 billion ceiling is set for organizations that are going to make IPOs, it said. --0-