REPORT: ARMENIAN FINANCIAL OMBUDSMAN RECEIVES 67 COMPLAINTS WHILE IN OFFICE

ARKA
Apr 15, 2009

YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. Armenian financial ombudsman’s office
has received 67 complaints over the period of its activity, Armenian
Financial System Ombudsman Piruz Sargsyan said on Wednesday.

She told journalists that 43 of these complaints were received in
March alone.

The Armenian financial system ombudsman’s office, the first financial
ombudsman institution in Commonwealth of Independent States, started
functioning on January 24, 2009.

Sargsyan said 30 of these complaints are legally liable to
consideration by the office.

Of them, 17 were sent to the ombudsman’s office without preliminary
submission to financial organizations.

"Officers of the office familiarized the complainants with their
rights and obligations and recommend them to file their complaints
to financial organizations first, and after that, if unsatisfied,
the claims can be sent to the ombudsman", Sargsyan said.

She said her office three times gave necessary instructions by phone.

After that, these three complaints were sent to relevant financial
organizations and considered there.

The financial ombudsman said that the office received ten written
complaints, of which four were related to payment operations, including
those carried out by means of plastic cards through ATMs, three were
connected with time deposits, two with insurance compensations and20one
with credit deals.

Two of these ten claims were declined, since not all demands were
justified by the law on financial ombudsman.

One complainant withdrew his claim after officers told him that the
decision wouldn’t be in his favor.

Three matters were settled amicably. Sargsyan said that the
law empowered her office to make tree kinds of decisions – full
satisfaction, partial satisfactions and declination.

"However, following international experience, we make every effort
to settle matters amicably. In these three cases, we are guided by
this very principle".

Sargsyan said that 19 of the 43 complaints received in March were
liable to consideration, ten were liable to consideration, but without
preliminary submission to financial organizations and three claims
were satisfied by financial organizations.

Of six written claims, two were related to payment operations
and account service, two with time deposits, one with insurance
compensation and on with a credit deal.