Azerbaijan’s degree of compliance with international standards in the field of combating the legalization of criminally obtained property and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) has been increased.
This was reported to Elchi.az by the Financial Monitoring Service. It was noted that the first progress report on Azerbaijan’s 5th round assessment in this area was approved at the plenary meeting of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL).
The report reflects progress in addressing the shortcomings identified in the assessment report adopted in 2023. According to MONEYVAL’s assessment, Azerbaijan has demonstrated significant progress in this direction. Azerbaijan has implemented important measures to increase the degree of compliance with the standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body that develops and promotes domestic and international strategies in this area.
After MONEYVAL’s 2023 assessment, Azerbaijan completed the risk assessment in various areas. New legislation and regulations have been adopted regarding the AML/CFT and the system ensuring transparency of beneficial ownership, amendments have been made to sectoral laws regulating the activities of financial institutions, and awareness-raising and training have been conducted in this area. The coverage of statistical data in accordance with the required standards has been expanded, and control over legal, accounting and auditing services has been improved.
As a result, MONEYVAL experts emphasized that the Azerbaijani government has significantly increased the compliance of the legislative and regulatory framework in the field of AML/CFT with the FATF recommendations. Taking into account the submitted justifications, a positive decision was made on the application for each of the 7 FATF recommendations, and the ratings for those recommendations were increased.
It was added that Azerbaijan will ensure the continuity of institutional cooperation with MONEYVAL in the next stage. The measures taken serve to expand the country’s cooperation opportunities with international financial institutions and partners, as well as to further strengthen the transparency of the financial system and the activities of law enforcement agencies in this area.