Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 27 / Trend I.Khalilova /
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) against Money Laundering decided to remove Azerbaijan from the list of countries requiring special attention at its plenary meeting held in Paris on Oct.18-22, said Rufat Aslanli, the chairman of the State Securities Committee of Azerbaijan, who headed the national delegation at the FATF meeting.
"The plenary session discussed the report of the September visit of the FATF mission in the country, and on this basis a decision to terminate the monitoring on Azerbaijan was made," he said. "As a result, Azerbaijan and Qatar became the first countries withdrawn from the FATF monitoring since 2009."
The mission included FATF Executive Secretary Kevin Vandergrift, political adviser to the agency for financial crimes and terrorist financing under the U.S financial department Christopher Burdick, executive secretary of Moneyval John Ringuth, and the German Anti-Money Laundering federal financial control official Jens Ferhof.
Based on the decisions taken at the G20 summit in London in 2009, the FATF conducted evaluation of the current situation in the field of combating legalization of money and other property received from crime and terrorist financing in 140 countries.
In October 2009, the FATF plenary meeting discussed the current situation in the development of anti-money laundering and terrorism financing (AML / TF) system. The meeting focused on an assessment of Azerbaijan held by the Committee of Experts MONEYVAL of the Council of Europe in 2008.
But, then Azerbaijan has not yet adopted the fundamental law in the field of AML / TF and not created the financial monitoring service. In this regard, MONEYVAL put forward some recommendations for improving the AML / TF system in Azerbaijan. These recommendations were associated with the formation of an appropriate legislative framework and the establishment of financial monitoring service.
Given this, the plenary meeting decided to include Azerbaijan, along with 24 countries in the list requiring "special attention".
The FATF divided these countries into three groups in February 2010: those with significant deficiencies in respect of its provisions that must be penalized, those with gaps in respect of its provisions that that do not cooperate with the FATF; and those with gaps in respect of its provisions but with the political will and a specific plan of actions to eliminate them in cooperation with the FATF.
Azerbaijan, which is exposed to financial crime risks, is classified in the third group in the FATF list.
The FATF statement publicized in February 2010 recorded positive progress in the development of AML / TF system in Azerbaijan. It was particularly noted the existence of high political commitment in connection with the development of this area. The FATF also considered the launch of a comprehensive action plan for the development of AML / TF system as positive development in the country.
In addition, Azerbaijan was recommended to bring the AML / TF system in line with international standard in collaboration with the FATF and MONEYVAL.
Appropriate measures have already been taken to implement these recommendations. The country adapted a new law on AML / TF on March 5, 2010 to bring the national legislation into conformity with the requirements of FATF. The Azerbaijani President signed a decree on its implementation on March 17. The country also ensured full functionality of the Financial Monitoring Service. All the necessary regulations have been take on the relevant legislation, which allowed creating mechanisms to ensure practical activity of the Financial Monitoring Service.
Azerbaijan presented progress made in implementing its plan in respect of FATF provisions in June at a FATF plenary meeting. As a result, the removal of Azerbaijan from the list is being considered by the FATF and an assessment mission has been sent to Azerbaijan to become acquainted with the results of its reforms and activities. Of the 25 countries in the third group, Azerbaijan and Qatar are being considered for removal from the list. A FATF assessment mission comprising senior officials was sent to Azerbaijan for the execution of the decision. The visit of the mission took place on Sept.7-8, 2010. During the visit, the delegation got acquainted with the achievements of Azerbaijan in the field of AML / TF.
The Financial Action Task Force against money laundering is an intergovernmental organization created to develop and implement collective measures to combat money-laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF was established in accordance with a decision by the G-7 Summit in Paris in 1989. Currently, the FATF has 34 members and it developed 40 recommendations to combat money laundering in 1990. These were revised in 1996 and 2003 taking into account developing laundering technologies. Nine special recommendations on terrorist financing in 2001 were adapted to the political situation in the world in October 2004. These documents are recognized as international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
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