Consumer rights protection
Financial Consumer Protection
The Central Bank of Armenia works to protect your financial rights
Every day, people make important financial decisions—opening a bank account, taking a loan, making a mobile payment, or choosing an insurance plan. The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) provides an appropriate environment and creates opportunities for consumers to ensure their decisions are safe, fair, and in their best interests.
Consumers in Armenia have the right to:
- Clear and honest information.
- Fair and respectful treatment by financial institutions.
- Confidentiality and data protection.
- Complaint mechanisms and independent dispute resolution.
- Protection from fraud and unauthorized firms.
What CBA Does to Protect Consumer
CBA sets the rules.
Through defining clear and rigorous regulations, Central bank ensures that all financial institutions in the country act with integrity and responsibility. Whether someone is applying for a loan or opening a savings account, the CBA works to make sure they are treated fairly, given appropriate information, and never exposed to misleading practices or hidden risks.
Read more about REGULATION and SUPERVISION
CBA supervises the financial institutions.
Rules and regulations should be properly enforced, which CBA does by reviewing how financial services are provided, conducting inspections, and analyzing complaints. the CBA identifies harmful practices and works to eliminate them. CBA conduct regular checks, including mystery shopping and on-site inspections, and monitor financial ads for misleading claims. If needed, CBA investigates financial institutions and take enforcement actions like fines or license revocation.
CBA ensures scam prevention and warnings․
CBA monitors market and fraud attempts in the market and helps consumers be aware of fraudulent activities. CBA protects consumers from financial scams by informing them about the types of scams and guiding them to take the appropriate steps to identify scams and make informed decisions. CBA post WARNINGS to guide consumers to be more cautious and make informed decisions with our warnings and alerts to keep their finances safe.
Read more about PROTECTING FROM SCAMS
CBA ensures dispute resolution.
CBA ensures that all consumers have access to dispute resolution mechanism, which is fast, efficient and free of charge. Under our approach, if a consumer is not satisfied with the service provided to her/him or believes, her/his rights have been violated, she/he should first apply to the financial organization. Then, if not satisfied with the results, consumers can turn to Financial Mediator for independent and professional dispute resolution. Consumers can always apply to CBA with their complaints or concerns. CBA will consider the issue and take necessary measures, in case of detecting problems in the activity of respective Financial Organizations.
Read more about COMPLAINTS
CBA promotes financial education.
Understanding finances leads to better decisions. That’s why the CBA integrates financial education in schools, runs different educational programs, develops educational content, and supports platforms like abcfinance.am to help people of all ages build money management skills. CBA builds also market place platforms like fininfo.am to make informed shopping of financial products and services.
Read more about FINANCIAL EDUCATION
CBA implements tailored solutions
CBA recognizes that different groups face unique challenges in accessing and using financial services effectively. CBA identifies vulnerable groups and designs specific solutions to ensure, they have access to quality financial products and services suitable for their specific needs. For example, simplified banking procedures for elderly citizens, accessible financial services for people with disabilities, specialized financial education programs for rural communities and protective measures against over-indebtedness.
CBA prioritizes consumer-centric solutions
At the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), we understand that consumers do not always make financial decisions in a perfectly rational way. Recognizing this, CBA prioritizes a consumer-centric approach by leveraging advanced behavioral research to develop policies, regulations, and measures that genuinely address the real-world needs of Armenian consumers. A dedicated research team systematically analyzes how individuals actually make financial decisions—rather than just how they theoretically should. This enables to design practical, effective consumer protection measures. For instance, we simplify disclosure requirements to make complex financial information more understandable, create default options that naturally guide consumers toward beneficial choices, and introduce cooling-off periods for significant financial decisions. Before implementing any new regulation, we rigorously test its impact through consumer studies and gather regular feedback to ensure our policies remain responsive to evolving consumer needs. This evidence-based approach fosters a financial marketplace that is not only safe and transparent but also genuinely beneficial for all consumers in Armenia.