YEREVAN. – Offshore accounts have no impact on Armenia’s banking system, 168 Zham daily reports.

“By hearing the word ‘offshore,’ we first and foremost assume a criminal [component] here, but that is not so. And overall, the [accounts in] offshore do not have a substantial impact on our banks,” Samvel Chzmachyan, Head of the Union of Banks of Armenia, told 168 Zham. 

“He reflected on the recent offshore scandal [in Armenia] and the overall impact of the [accounts in] offshore on our economy. 

“According to him, banks have special divisions that combat against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and the CBA [i.e., Central Bank of Armenia] oversees their activities.  

“At the same time, Chzmachyan said the profits of large oligarchy could have gone to the offshore zones, but such thing is impossible to imagine in Armenia,” 168 Zham writes.     

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, Hetq.am News Agency had written that PM Tigran Sargsyan, Archbishop Navasard Kjoyan—the Vicar General of the Araratian Pontifical Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church—, and “jeweler” Ashot Sukiasyan are shareholders in an offshore company called Wlispera Holdings Limited, which is registered in Cyprus.