YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The government today approved a package of legislative amendments submitted by the Central Bank during the Cabinet meeting on maximally refraining SMEs and farming businesses from loan risks.

Caretaker finance minister Atom Janjughazyan said that the amendments are aimed at preventing the abuses that financial organizations offering credits might commit. He said that the new regulations will cover not the current 2 million dram volume loan transactions, but 5 million dram transactions.

The amendments will regulate credit relations in the farming and SME sectors, will clarify the rights of borrowers and obligations of creditors, and will define the minimal conditions in loan contracts.

By the new amendments, the requirement of reflecting the factual annual interest rate of loans in the contracts will be a mandatory condition.

Janjughazyan said the amendments also envisage abolishing the lower threshold of transactions – the 100,000 drams, which was leaving loan transactions lower than this number uncovered by law previously.

The amendments will also enable borrowers to refuse the loan within seven days after taking it, in case of changing their minds.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan