YEREVAN, October 9. /ARKA/. Financial Ombudsman’s Office of Armenia helped the consumers to compensate nearly 76.4 million drams in the first quarter of 2012, financial ombudsman of Armenia Piruz Sargsyan said on Tuesday.

“Financial Ombudsman’s Office received about 260 complaints within the ongoing year,” she said at the annual conference “Institute of Financial Ombudsman targeted at enhancing trust of the citizens and increase of financial mediation.”
According to Sargsyan, 69.3% of the complaints were satisfied, and in the most cases the sides do not sue any cases but finally agree.

“The statistics shows that this year 70% of complaints were against insurance companies, and nearly 30%- against banks, the rest – versus credit organization, pawnshops, etc.,” she said adding that mandatory car insurance and medical insurance mainly caused this ratio.
Sargsyan also noted that the Office helped the consumers to compensate over 58 million drams in 2011, over 29 million and 26 million in 2010 and 2009 respectively.

Financial Ombudsman’s Office of Armenia, established on January 24, 2009,  is the first institution of such nature in the CIS. Its goal is to protect the interests and rights of the clients of banking system of Armenia, review  their complaints, and enhance their trust towards financial system of the republic. ($1-407.56 drams). —0-