YEREVAN, November 9. /ARKA/. At its regular meeting held Thursday, the Armenian government upheld amendments to the consumer lending law and a number of related laws.
Atom Janjughazyan, finance minister, said the amendments are aimed at amortizing possible risks for farmers who have to repay their loans taken from financial organizations.
“The loan portfolio of the economic entities operating in agriculture amounts to AMD 217 billion now, and risks in the area are mainly connected with insufficient financial awareness among villagers, and credit organizations can take advantage of this,” he said.
Besides, the amendments oblige lenders to provide detailed information about the loan and the interest rate to every borrower not only in their offices – they have to send the information through email.
Arthur Javadyan, the head of the Central Bank of Armenia, on his side, said that the amendments propose to remove the lower benchmark of consumer lending – AMD 100,000.
They also propose to increase the upper benchmark from the present AMD 2 million to AMD 5 million.
“We are also setting strict requirements on providing data about the actual interest rate on the loan, i.e. about the effective rate, not to delude the borrower,” Javadyan said.
In addition, the amendments propose to give a chance to borrowers to change their mind within seven days after formalization of loans and not to have these loans.
The consumer lending law specifies the loan amounting to AMD 100,000 to AMD 10 million as consumer loan.
Agriculture loans amounting to up to AMD 2 million are considered consumer loans as well. ($1 – AMD 487.66). -0—
