ARMENIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Varoujan Avedikian, Lena Mitichyan, Ani Tchagharyan and Anahit Zakaryan, Andersen Legal
Armenian (though other languages are allowed), with full disclosure of rights, risks, conflicts of inter - est, etc. • All providers of crypto-asset services (eg, trading platforms, custodians, brokers, advisers, issuers of asset-referenced tokens) must obtain a licence issued by the Central Bank. Some financial institu - tions are allowed to provide such services without additional licensing. Service providers must act fairly and transparently, separate client assets from their own, maintain records and disclose risks to clients. • It is expected that by the end of 2025, the Central Bank will adopt secondary legislation, which may, among other things, stipulate detailed requirements for public offerings and advertisements, impose minimum capital and organisational requirements, internal control and risk systems, and address information security. • Existing service providers have a transitional period (one year after the secondary legislation is adopt - ed) to register and become compliant. • The Central Bank is empowered to supervise and sanction non-compliance, including market abuse (eg, price manipulation and insider trading). Armenian Law-Governed Swaps and Derivatives Agreement On 23 October 2025, the Central Bank published ASDA – the Armenian law-governed Swaps and Deriv - atives Agreement, which includes the master agree - ment for derivatives, the schedule thereto (including securities financing transactions (SFT) provisions), a credit support annex and SFT definitions. The pack - age is based on the 2002 International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Master Agreement, its schedule (including the SFT provisions of the sched - ule), the 1995 credit support annex (governed by English law) and the 2022 SFT definitions, and was prepared by applying a methodology of reviewing and localising each provision of these documents within the framework of Armenian legislation. The project was initiated by the Central Bank with technical assistance from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and with financial support from the government of Japan. The localisation of the documents was carried out by
Andersen Legal. The purpose of the initiative is to introduce the best international practice to the local derivatives markets and boost the use of documents tested on global markets. Due to the Central Bank’s regulatory amendments, the derivatives, repurchase agreement (repo) and security lending transactions entered into within the ASDA framework qualify as financial transactions and enjoy certain protections (eg, netting of obligations is not captured by insolvency moratorium/claw-back regimes). Employment Law Amendments Recent legal reforms in Armenia have introduced a new digital system for managing employment con - tracts, designed to enhance the transparency and efficiency of employment relations. The system will be implemented in two stages: • from 1 July 2025 – employers may voluntarily use the platform to sign, amend or terminate employ - ment contracts electronically; and • from 1 January 2026 – using the digital system will become mandatory for all employers and employ - ees. After an employment contract is created in the system, it is first signed electronically by the employer or their authorised representative. The signed document then appears on the employee’s personal page in the uni - fied electronic service platform of the State Revenue Committee. If the employee agrees with the terms, they must sign the contract electronically before the contract’s start date. The new regulations also permit the establishment of an annex to the employment contract, which may be concluded through postal or electronic communica - tion between the parties, thereby facilitating the veri - fication of the annex’s authenticity. Beyond contract management, the platform combines several essential functions in one place. Users can create, review and sign contracts, approve registra - tion requests, receive notifications and access signed documents. The system automatically connects with tax authorities to help manage tax control and income
29 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook