Armenia: Test case for building a "best practices" legal environment

Abstract

As is the case in many countries around the
world, the legal and regulatory environment
for microlending in Armenia is ambiguous.
Currently no law or set of laws exists that
governs how NGO microlenders should be
regulated. This lack of legal clarity has not
prevented several actors – both commercial and
non-commercial – from establishing strong and
promising microlending operations over the
past few years. While these donor-backed
initiatives have achieved a great deal in a
relatively short period of time, Armenia’s
microlending sector will not achieve significant
scale or sustainability unless microlendingfriendly
legislation and normative acts – based
upon global best practices – are adopted. As a
result, the sector’s ability to help create jobs
and alleviate poverty will be greatly limited.