YEREVAN, June 5. /ARKA/. Commercial banks in Armenia have forgiven fines and penalties totaling AMD 11.8 billion (USD 24.5 million) on bad loans to 20,889 borrowers as of June 2, 2019, the press office of the Central Bank of Armenia reported on Tuesday.

Starting from July 1, 2018, loan reports about individual borrowers, their co-borrowers and guarantors, contain no information about overdue or classified loans before May 1, 2018, where key sum didn’t exceed AMD 50,000 at the moment of sealing the contract.

Some 126,585 people have their credit stories improved.

On June 21, the Armenian National Assembly passed amendments to the tax code, in accordance to which banks are allowed to forgive the fines and penalties imposed on citizens for delay in paying their loans.

Following this legislative change, all banks have started forgiving individual borrowers fines and penalties on bad loans.

The amendment applies to payment delays of 271 and more days as of May 31, 2018. Some banks applied this also to small and mid-scale businesses. -0---