YEREVAN. – The amount of compensation for bank deposits is subject to change every five years in Armenia. Mikayel Melkumyan, a member of the opposition Prosperous Armenia faction in the National Assembly and an economist by profession, said this during Tuesday’s parliamentary debates on the bill on amendments to the law on guaranteeing compensation for bank deposits of individuals.

According to him, who is the author of the bill, this refers to about 100 thousand depositors in the country, and the MP made a number of proposals in this regard.

"Although about 98 percent of deposit points are quantitatively guaranteed [in Armenia], it is 41.5 percent in amount. As a result of increasing the threshold, the coefficient will increase by at least 3-4 percent, approaching 45 percent. It will prove that we [Armenia] guarantee the compensation for the deposits of small and medium-sized investors," Melkumyan emphasized, in particular.

To note, the total amount of deposits in Armenia reaches more than 3 trillion drams. At the same time, there are at least one million depositors in the country.

This circumstance has caused an ambiguous stance among the MPs of the ruling My Step bloc. In particular, there is concern that in the event of a bankruptcy threat, banks will not be able to fully repay them.

The Central Bank of Armenia, however, has supported this legislative initiative.