MONEYVAL committee says Armenia makes progress in fighting money laundering

YEREVAN, October 16, /ARKA/. The Council of Europe’s Moneyval
Committee said Armenia has made substantial progress in the
implementation of recommendations of International Financial Action
Task Force on Money laundering. The news was announced by the governor
of Armenia’s Central Bank Arthur Javadian.

The Committee of Experts Moneyval of the Council of Europe monitors
and assesses the measures adopted by member states in the field of
prevention and fighting against money laundering and financing of
terrorism in line with recommendations drawn up by Financial Action
Task Force on Money Laundering.

In his opening remarks today at the meeting of the Armenian
inter-agency commission on fighting counterfeiting, plastic card
frauds, money laundering and financing of terrorism, Arthur Javadian
said the progress was due to the coordinated and purposeful work of
all stakeholders. He thanked the Financial Monitoring Center of the
Central Bank saying the progress was largely due to its everyday and
consistent work. He also thanked members of the inter-agency
commission for their contribution to the progress.

He said fighting money-laundering is a constantly developing process
and because of that Armenia needs to constantly improve its
instruments and methods of cracking down on this crime.

Daniel Azatian, head of the Financial Monitoring Center of the Central
Bank, said all financial organizations, realtor companies, casinos,
notary and lawyers firms as well as some state agencies which provide
information about suspicious transactions exceeding 20 million Drams
are registered with their Center.

Moneyval at its 30th plenary meeting in late September adopted the
mutual evaluation report of Armenia. In its assessment of Step 3 of
fighting money laundering and financing of terrorism Armenia is in the
10th position among 25 member countries. Armenia joined Moneyval in
2006 and is involved actively in the process of mutual assessment of
the system for fighting money laundering and financing of terrorism.
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