OREANDA-NEWS. February 15, 2010. Rufat Aslanli, the chairperson of the State Securities Committee and the head of the law-maker group, said that they went out of control of Moneyval.

“In December, Moneyval made a decision to halt procedure of the monitoring concerning Azerbaijan and we switched to on-line regime of relations with Moneyval,” he said.

In this normal regime Moneyval conducts monitoring of all the 27 participating countries.

“Thus, Azerbaijan was transferred to normal regime of monitoring. The country also has passed the third round of conformity to the FATF requirements. Now Moneyval starts the fourth round of assessment. In particular it is expected to establish a special commission to visit the countries. Schedule of the fourth round of assessment of Azerbaijan has not been endorsed yet,” Aslanli said.

On 7 October 2009, director of cash department Adishirin Gasimov was appointed the Director of FMS by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s decree №517 and Chief of branch of control department over credit institutions Anar Salmanov - his deputy.

The CBA has drawn technical assistance to formation and institutionalization of the Service. The Service’s residence will be located at the address: 40, Byul-Byul Avenue, Baku.

By decree from 16 July 2009 President Ilham Aliyev endorsed the Regulation on the Financial Monitoring Service that is the main point in realization of the Law on Counteraction to Laundering of Money Received by Criminal Way and Terrorist Financing.

In this connection CBA was charged with approving Agency’s structure and staff over 15 days and solving issues following the decree. The Cabinet was given a month to make the proposals for bringing the appropriate legislative acts in compliance with the decree, along with other bodies of executive power the make relevant amendments to the standard and legal acts and solve the issue of material and technical maintenance of the service.

On 24 February 2009, President Ilham Aliyev signed the Draft Law on counteraction to legalization of the money and property received by criminal way and terrorism financing adopted by the Parliament on February 10. The decree says of establishment of Financial Monitoring Service under CBA  and gives a month to CBA to develop and submit the Regulation on the Service.

Earlier, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) called upon the member states and other countries to be extremely careful in deals with persons and financial organizations residing or located in Azerbaijan.

In its public statement passed on 12 December 2008 FATF appealed financial institutions of other countries to be extremely careful in deals with Azerbaijan and carry out due check of clients to remove risk of money laundering/terrorism financing. It was indicated to the Expert Group appeal to re-consider the Bill on Counteraction to ML/TF passed in the second reading in Azerbaijan as it fails to conform to key international standards to the large extent and adopt immediately complex legislation complying with the requirements.

Rosfinmonitoring’s notification can aggravate realization of financial operations between Russia and Azerbaijan.

In its evaluation Moneval also pointed out that the country fails to fulfill structural, legislative and institutional requirements when certain type of institute is lacking in the country.

Out of the 40 FATF standards there were recognized Azerbaijan’s non-conformity in fight against breaches on money laundering, audit of clients, politically persecuted persons, new technologies and face-to-face business, non-standard deals, reporting on suspicious deals, internal control, audit, sanctions, foreign branches and subsidiaries, management and relations with clients, lack of a body on FIU, on statistics, freezing and confiscation of terrorist funds and non-profit organizations.