Beware of 'Intermediary' Credit Organizations: Mané Tandilyan Explains

Armenian National Assembly member and Chair of the Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, Mané Tandilyan, recently addressed concerns on her Facebook page.

“Recently, organizations and individuals offering loan intermediary services, essentially ‘helping to obtain loans,’ have become more active. These offers are heavily advertised on social media and in public spaces. Following discussions with financial institutions, it has become clear that these individuals generally do not collaborate with banks and credit organizations; rather, they merely leverage some financial and legal knowledge to convince people to obtain services from banks that they could just as easily access on their own, without any intermediary. For these services, they demand and receive fees from citizens, which often amount to 25-30% of the loan received, significantly raising the cost of loans for the citizens. Unfortunately, many citizens find themselves utilizing the services of these individuals, unduly emphasizing their influence in the loan acquisition process.

Currently, this process is not regulated by legislation and is presented as a consulting service, often bundled with other services. Considering the above, we have introduced legislative proposals to amend the laws on ‘Banks and Banking Activities’ and on ‘Credit Organizations’ to provide the best solution to this issue. The adoption of these proposals will allow for the regulation of such services and protect citizens when engaging with financial institutions, specifically by prohibiting the collection of any intermediary fees from citizens.”