On July 30 the national bank of Azerbaijan terminated the operation of Western Union and MoneyGram systems in their country because of the fact that system also transfers money to the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh.
On July 29 the president of the ANB submitted a letter to all banks of Azerbaijan and instructed them to terminate the cooperation with the mentioned systems immediately. He explained his decision with the fact that the Western Union and MoneyGram systems had refused to terminate their operation “in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan”, i.e. the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. According to the Azeri media even the head of the Western Union has visited Azerbaijan to discuss that issue, however the ANB did not compromise and said that the mentioned system cannot transfer money both to Karabakh and Azerbaijan at one time. The operation of this system was later recovered in Azerbaijan because the mentioned companies compromised and terminated their transaction operations in Karabakh. In fact, Azerbaijan can manipulate these companies and they succeeded in convincing them to do what they want. As for these companies, they agreed to compromise because if they are not allowed to work in Azerbaijan they will lose huge money. On the other hand, Armenia has influential tools to make them do what we want because the capacity of financial transactions to Armenia is rather big and this capacity tends to growing. The Western Union, MoneyGram and the other companies occupied in money transactions are getting huge incomes due to the Armenian transactions, which is a strong tool in the hand of Armenia too. In other words, if Azerbaijan can make them do what they want, it means that Armenia can do it too. We wander whether the Central bank of Armenia intends to make such steps or when it will be done. The chairman of the CB Vache Gabrielian says that Armenia will undertake certain steps too but now they are still examining the situation. He refused to comment on the activities of the Western Union and MoneyGram in Azerbaijan and said that it is their business. As for their operations in the territory of Nagorno Karabakh, specifically he said, “We have told all the organizations that if any of their actions are connected with political motives, it will not be accepted by the central bank of Armenia. Now we are examining the situation with them to understand the situation. The MoneyGram and Western Union are not the only organizations that are operating in these countries, there are other organizations too. We have informed all of them that Armenia is against any limitations of activities which are motivated by political reasons.”
According to Mr. Gabrielyan, the Central bank has asked those companies what the reasons of such decision are. “If they fail to bring reasonable explanations, we will consider it a politically motivated decision,” he said. We wander what the CB will do if it turns out that the mentioned decision is really politically motivated. Mr. gabrielyan did not specify the actions to be taken by Armenia in such case but assured that in such case it will be very bad for those organizations. The CB chairman did not specify any specific capacities of money transferred to Karabakh through these systems. “There are many systems serving for financial transactions and we are examining their histories to get information about their work and performance. We will inform you once we get final information. Now we are examining the field of their activities and very soon will give an answer to that question,” he said, To note, when addressing this issue in the Azeri press the chairman of the Azeri Banks Association Eldar Ismailov said that this is an achievement on their part. “Our activities and efforts in the past have brought to the result that VTB-Bank Armenia has closed its office in Stepanakert,” he said. In fact, Ismailov assures that they made VTB Bank to close its office in Karabakh and even the bank tried to justify their activities by saying that upon the time when they purchased the Armenian Arsavingsbank it had an office in Karabakh.
Mr. Gabrielyan says that it is not true and VTB bank has not closed its offices in Stepanakert yet. As for the reasons why this office is going to be closed, these reasons are quite different: “VTB Bank Armenia is turning to consolidation because it has a huge network of offices, and there are many field offices among them which are not active enough and profitable. We can put limitations on decisions to close banks in areas only in case when there are no banking services in such areas. If VTB bank is closing any of its offices anywhere in Armenia, even in Karabakh, the real reason is profitability of such offices”.