YEREVAN, December 9. /ARKA/. Armenia's National Assembly has approved today in the first reading a set of amendments to the law on bank secrecy, which remove the requirement that the Central bank must publish the names of creditors who fail to meet their contractual obligations.

According to the Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, Nerses Yeritsyan, this requirement had been introduced in the past in order to encourage lenders to comply with their obligations, however, legislative changes adopted later essentially made this requirement unnecessary.

He said this mechanism was mainly used by the CIS countries at the initial stage, but subsequently it was abandoned.

A lawmaker from the Bright Armenia party Maneh Tandilyan opposed the bill, saying although the law is still in force, the Central Bank no longer publishes the names of unscrupulous creditors.
“What are my chances of winning a case in court, if I file a lawsuit and demand that the Central Bank publish this list? What punishment will the Central Bank incur for not complying with this provision of the law?” she asked. She argued that preserving this mechanism does not harm or contradict the mission of the Central Bank established by the Constitution. -0-