According to the decision of the RA Central Bank, as of February 6, starting from March 15th commercial banks of Armenia will be forbidden to participate in the monetary system transfer known as Western Union. The CB explains this fact in the following way: the applications presented by banks to participate in this system do not correspond to the charter of Western Union. This discrepancy was revealed during the examination of the mentioned applications. The reason is that, according to the RA law “On payment systems and monetary transfers,” in order to participate in the system of international money transfers, commercial banks must receive permission from the CB. According to the CB’s informational service, “the revealed inaccuracies may originate risks and may jeopardize the financial security of the country.” Nevertheless, the banks are able to present new applications to participate in the Western Union system by March 15th, however this time the applications should be based on changed contracts. The negotiations between Western Union and Armenian banks have already begun. As soon as the banks present the necessary changes and documents, the CB will check if they correspond to Western Union requirements and will be ready to revise their decision.
At present, 11 out of 21 Armenian commercial banks are participants of the system. We tried to find out the commercial banks’ opinions about the inaccuracies of the applications. The answers were mainly as follows: “We are not ready to comment on anything yet.” The “ArmeconomBank” explained the reason for such passiveness: “At present very active negotiations are being led concerning the relationship with Western Union. And anything said in this regard may become an obstacle for this process.”
Also, last year the Armenian banks transferred 44.4 billion AMD through this system, 3.4 billion AMD of which was the outflow and 41.1 was the inflow. In 2005, the transfers of Western Union amounted to 16.04% of the total money transfers. The system has officially operated in Armenia since 1996.