Lawmaker seeks to restrict foreign currency mortgage regulations to protect citizens from risks

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. MP Gevorg Papoyan drafted amendments to the Law on Currency Regulation and Currency Supervision seeking to set new regulations for provision of mortgage loans.

Papoyan, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, introduced the bill at the February 10 session in parliament.

“If citizens don’t have foreign currency incomes then they shouldn’t receive loans in foreign currency,” he said.

“Two months ago the currency exchange rate for euro was 392 [drams]. And the citizen, for example, who had taken a mortgage loan in euros, today must repay it with 9% higher rate because the exchange rate has reached 427,” Papoyan said.

Papoyan said his bill seeks to help citizens manage their risks.

The proposed regulations don’t pertain to business loans, while the same restriction is already in place for consumer loans. The new regulation, if passed, will pertain only to “apartment mortgage loans”, he said.