Collegial bodies are only link for balancing interests – Mikael Soghomonyan

Collegial bodies are the only link for balancing interests, and the most complex industries cannot be regulated by one official, Mikael Soghomonyan, representative of the Tashir Capital, said during the discussion on whether to terminate or extend the license of ENA.

According to him, collegial bodies are the only mechanism for balancing the conflicting interests of the state, the consumer, and the economic entity.

“It is precisely this clash of interests that compels states to create a single point of balance in the form of collegial regulatory bodies. The most complex sectors of the economy, considered natural monopolies, cannot be regulated by one official,” Soghomonyan said.

He noted that the two main independent regulatory bodies in Armenia, the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) and the Central Bank, are still collegial.

“The question arises: if the legislator, the state, decides to apply a special approach to regulators, why does it not apply the same principle to another regulatory body, such as the Central Bank? For example, based on a report from the Ministry of Finance, there could be a priority instruction to the Chairman of the Central Bank to terminate the license of one of the banks,” Soghomonyan added.