YEREVAN, February 12. /ARКА/. The Armenian parliament passed Thursday in the first reading a bill that raises the amount of fines that may be imposed on commercial banks for violating consumer rights. The bill was endorsed by a vote of 93 to one and 19 abstentions.

Artak Manukyan, an MP from the ruling My Step bloc, a co-author of the bill, said the amount of fine for the first violation within a year has been raised  up to 500 thousand drams, but not less than 300 thousand drams. In case of a second violation the fine rises  up to 1 million drams, but not less than 500 thousand drams, and a third violation within  a year would entail a fine of  up to 2 million, but not less than 1 million drams.

The bill was earlier approved by the parliamentary committee on fiscal and budget issues. Under the current law, the Central Bank may fine a commercial bank for violating a consumer's rights in the amount of 100,000 drams for a repeated violation within one year and only after issuing a warning. The fine for a another violation is 200 thousand drams, and for the third one is 500 thousand drams.

According to Manukyan, the amount of fine that may be imposed by the financial ombudsperson on a bank for violating consumer's right is 300 thousand drams, which are given to the affected client in case he/she is right. The amount of administrative punishment that the regulator imposes on a bank is 100 thousand drams, which are transferred to the state budget.

According to the Central Bank, it  resorts to such measures 4 times a year, as it tries to apply preventive measures. ($ 1 - 523.13 drams) - 0--