In our previous editions we have published an article entitled “Did the Western union chose Azerbaijan?”, which writes about the decision of the Armenian Central Bank to terminate the activities of Western Union in Armenia and the reasons.
We have also asked the Central bank to give some explanations and clarifications about their decision and we received the answer yesterday. In consideration of the CB president’s announcement that it would be very bad for that organization if it turned out that their decision had political motives we asked the CB whether the CB had found any political reasons in the decision of the Western Union. We also asked whether it is possible that the head of the Western Union may visit Armenia and to negotiate with the CB authorities as in the case of Azerbaijan.
“The CB has examined the issue of putting certain limitations in the work of the Western Union with the Armenian banks (specifically the issue of terminating money transfer activities to some bank branches in Artsakh). This issue was discussed with the Western Union delegation which visited Armenia recently. During the discussion the representatives of the Western Union were alleging that their decision was not based on political reasons but risks that they find in this region. According to the CB policies, we allow those companies occupied in money transfer to work in Armenia, which are stabile and have stabile mechanisms of risk evaluation and management. As the Western union failed to substantiate the risks that are preventing their cooperation with the bank branches in Karabakh, the CB had to declare such company which is making arbitrary decisions separating the partner companies into different groups as a company which activities are risky, and terminate their activities according to our policies and procedures,” writes the statement sent to us by the CB public relations department. Furthermore, the mentioned letter ends with the following transparent hint: “It is also worth mentioning that Karabakh has legislation and certain state body against money laundering, thus any risks which are characteristic to companies such as the Western Union are minimized in that area”.
We also asked the CB why they terminated the activities of that company only because there are other companies such as the MoneyGram, which have terminated their operations with Karabakh as well. Does this mean that they have come to an agreement with the other companies or they have been able to substantiate their decisions with reasonable facts? In answer to this question the CB informed that they are negotiating with those other companies to find out the details and make a final decision.
“What is the solution of this situation? Isn’t there any solution? Does it mean that the WU shall work either in Armenia and Karabakh or in Azerbaijan?” The CB has left this question without an answer and said that we should ask this question to the WU directly.
In answer to another question whether the banks of Armenia have not submitted complaints to them because they get profits mostly from the services of this company they said that they have not received any complaints from any Armenian bank. By the way, the CB found it necessary to inform that the WU is not the leading company in such operations and brought some detailed information to show this fact.
Specifically, according to the information of the Central Bank, the gross money transfer capacities of the Western Union at the end of the first three months of 2008 was in the third place among the other companies. During that period the overall amount of the transferred sums amounted 8.3 billion dram, 88.7% or 7.4 billion out of which was the money transfers to Armenia. The leading company in money transfer operations in Armenia is UNIStream (39.3 billion dram during the first three months of 2008) and Anelik (8.7 billion dram).
Currently besides the SWIFT system of payments the trade banks of Armenia have participation in 17 international systems: Western Union, Money Gram, Anelik, Unistream, Urgent Mail, Interexpress, Contact, Lider, Migom, Private Money Transfer, STB Express, Faster, Blizko, Alive money, etc. Besides these companies there are also companies other than banks which make money transfer as well. Such companies are: Haypost, TelCell, Toward home, Elver, Parvana, Tandem Payments, Mega Pantera and OSMP.