ARMENIA, RUSSIA SIGN COOPERATION DEAL TO FIGHT MONEY LAUNDERING

Mediamax
Jan 23 2008
Armenia

Yerevan, 22 January: Armenia and Russia signed today an
interdepartmental agreement on cooperation in the sphere of
counteracting legalization of income received in a criminal way and
[counteracting] financing of terrorism.

The agreement was signed in Yerevan today by the head of the
Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation
(Rosfinmonitoring), Oleg Markov, and the head of the Financial
Monitoring Centre of the Central Bank of Armenia, Daniyel Azaryan.

Markov said the agreement was based on the principles of the
international Egmont Committee, which has over 20 member countries
including Armenia and Russia, and envisages exchange of information
between the financial intelligence departments of the two countries
concerning suspicious transactions involving money or other property.

He said that the agreement would make it possible to increase the
efficiency of the system of supervision over trans-border monetary
flows with the aim of revealing cases of legalization of criminal
income and counteracting them.

As the chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia, Tigran Sarkisyan,
said, this is the first official agreement signed by the Central Bank’s
Financial Monitoring Centre. He noted that "the financial and economic
ties with Russia have a priority significance for Armenia’s economy".

Sarkisyan said he hoped that the agreement would contribute not
only to exchange of information between the financial intelligence
[departments] of the two countries, but will also allow the Armenian
side to become acquainted with the rich expertise accumulated by
their Russian colleagues, via Rosfinmonitoring’s training centre.

"Today, Armenia’s parliament is considering the draft law on
counteracting financing of terrorism, and I consider the Russian side’s
offer of internship at Rosfinmonitoring’s training centre to be very
important not only for our staff, but for MPs and representatives of
other departments, too," Sarkisyan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress