Central Bank of Armenia warns of fake documents used to take out loans in citizens’ names

The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has warned citizens about fake documents passed off as powers of attorney, certificates and decisions of the regulator. The samples published by the CBA give themselves away at first glance: both the Russian-language and the Armenian texts are full of grammatical errors, typos and bank details that do not exist in Armenia’s banking system.

According to the CBA warning, fraud cases have become more frequent recently, with criminals misleading citizens with fake documents presented as issued by the Central Bank of Armenia. Fraudsters use them to try to obtain loans from financial institutions in citizens’ names or to carry out other fraudulent transactions.

The regulator stresses that financial institutions generally do not need powers of attorney or certificates from the CBA when serving clients. If such documents are presented or referred to when you use financial services, the CBA urges you to check that they are genuine by calling the bank at +374 10 592 592 (Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00) or emailing secretariat@cba.am.

Russian-language “IDs” with a management board, a BIK code and a rouble correspondent account

Two of the three published samples are Russian-language “identity certificates” supposedly issued to female employees of the “Central Office of the CBRA”. Both documents follow the same template: the outgoing number (No. 29224616), the certificate number (No. 57470), the holders’ patronymic, position and validity period are identical. The errors start in the very first sentence:

• “Центральный Банк Республики Армения, предоставляет…” (“The Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, provides…”) – a superfluous comma between subject and verb, and “Bank” capitalised.
• “документацию о подтверждении личности квалифицированного сотрудника банка” (“documentation confirming the identity of a qualified bank employee”) – bureaucratic nonsense not found in official CBA documents.
• “ЦБРА” (CBRA) – in Russian-language texts the regulator calls itself “ЦБ РА” or “ЦБ Армении”, and no unit called the “Central Office of the CBRA” exists.
• The “Position” field reads “Financial control”, the name of a function, not a job title.
• The document is signed on behalf of the “Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of the CBRA”. The Central Bank of Armenia has no management board: it has a chairman, deputy chairmen and the Central Bank Board. The signature bears the name of Armen Nurbekyan, an actual deputy chairman of the CBA.
• The “bank details” include a BIK code and a correspondent account in Russian format: the 20-digit account 30107810… contains the code of the Russian rouble (810). Such details are not used in Armenia’s banking system. Only the CBA’s SWIFT code, CBRAAM22, is genuine.
• In the footer of the second sample the regulator is called the “National Bank of the Republic of Armenia”, an institution that does not exist.
• Both “certificates” are valid until September 1, 2026, so they have already expired.

The Armenian “decision” with “Բանի” for “Բանկի” and “Հայասպան” for “Հայաստան”

The third sample is “decision” No. 1/2/391 dated September 15, 2026, allegedly signed by a deputy chairman of the CBA, on financing seven people under a “programme to support SMEs in rural communities”. The Armenian text reads like a poor translation or the result of a broken font:

• The title reads “ՖԻՆԱՆՍԱԿՈՐՄԱՆ” instead of “ՖԻՆԱՆՍԱՎՈՐՄԱՆ” (financing).
• The name of the law is enclosed in hybrid quotation marks «<…»>.
• “ՀՀ կենտրոնական Բանի” – the letter “կ” is missing from the word “bank”, which is also capitalised.
• “շրջականներում” instead of “շրջանակներում” (within the framework).
• The conjunction “և” (and) is replaced with the letter “ն”.
• The clause on the deadline contains the meaningless words “Անիմանել … ժմվարկ”, apparently instead of “Սահմանել … ժամկետ” (set a deadline).
• Dates in the same document are written in different ways: “15 սեպտեմբեր 2026թ.” and “29 սեպտեմբերի 2026թ.”.
• Under the signature the country’s name is misspelt as “Հայասպանի Հանրապեպության”, with “տ” replaced by “պ” twice.
• The letterhead is in the name of the CBA chairman, while the document is signed by a deputy chairman.

Source: Central Bank of Armenia, warning of October 28, 2026 (published in Armenian only). Analysis of the errors in the documents by BusinessDaily.