The Armenian Government Will Forgive Loans Secured by Gold for Those Displaced from Artsakh

The government approved a decision to forgive the obligations of individuals and formalize them as state financial support. Based on the amendments to the Law on the State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2023, adopted by the RA National Assembly on December 22, 2023, and the decision of the government on December 28, 2023, cash claims of commercial banks, credit and insurance organizations toward the government of Artsakh and its created foundations, as well as individual citizens, have been ceded to the RA government. In exchange, treasury bonds have been issued in favor of these entities.

The obligations ceded by the government include the credit obligations of individuals secured by gold items toward financial organizations of Armenia, which specifically concern around 6,000 citizens with credit obligations totaling approximately 2.8 billion drams. The project proposes to forgive credit obligations secured by gold items for individual citizens up to 5 million drams and create an opportunity to return the pledged gold items that secure those obligations.

Currently, around 30 kilograms of approximately 7,800 gold items are held as collateral for the obligations of about 1,800 citizens in financial organizations. In terms of the total remaining obligations of approximately 2.3 billion drams, there are 5,241 loans up to 500,000 drams, 718 loans between 500,000 and 1 million, 221 loans between 1 million and 2 million, 25 loans between 2 and 2.5 million, 15 loans between 2.5 and 5 million, and only 5 loans over 5 million drams,” said Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan.

He noted that after the adoption of the government decision, the eligible individuals can submit applications to the Ministry of Finance to sign a debt forgiveness agreement with them. “The procedure for submitting applications and further details about the process will be clarified on the official website of the ministry and through the media. After the signing of the debt forgiveness agreements, the pledged gold items will be returned to the citizens,” the minister stated.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan clarified that the decision pertains exclusively to those forcibly displaced from Artsakh who obtained loans secured by gold, and these loans have been transferred to the government. “These are the loans that existed as of September 2023. Since we took over a significant part of those obligations with previous decisions, the government has essentially assumed the rights and obligations of that credit portfolio, and this is a logical continuation of that decision,” the Prime Minister emphasized.