YEREVAN, October 24. /ARKA/. Less than half of Armenian residents are not aware of alternative offers while making decisions to obtain financial products, member of the board of the Central Bank of Armenia Armenak Darbinyan said.

The respective study was carried out by the World Bank initiated by the Central Bank of Armenia to assess financial opportunities.

The reason for this, according to Darbinyan, is that many citizens are not enough aware of services available in the financial sector, despite the fact banks are distributing leaflets about their banking products.

There is lack of information in this field, despite a special department on protection of consumers’ rights operating and being expanded every year in the Central Bank, Darbinyan said.

Legislation is in force in the field, and there is financial ombudsman in the country, he said.

Darbinyan also said the powers of the Central Bank’s department will be expanded to include financial service regulations, monitoring of consumer rights, studies in the filed and increasing public awareness of financial services.

Financial organizations should provide full and accessible information about their services to clients, and consumers should learn about the opportunities and range of services, before making a decision on what to select, Darbinyan said.–0--