Armenian MPs reject bill on struggle against money laundering

Armenian MPs reject bill on struggle against money laundering

Itar-Tass, Russia
Nov 10 2004

YEREVAN, November 10 (Itar-Tass) – The Armenian MPs on Wednesday
rejected a bill on struggle against money laundering and financial
aid to terrorism. The bill failed to gain the required number of votes.

Central Bank Chairman Tigran Sarkisyan noted that the document provided
for the creation of a single financial monitoring centre under the
Bank of Armenia.

The bill specifies demands for financial flows from offshore zones
and establishes standards for handling transactions with money of
dubious origin.

The bill has become the first Armenian normative act to define the
notion of “financial terrorism”. It provides real mechanisms for
its warning.

The drafting of the bill is linked to Armenia’s accession to
international conventions on struggle against money laundering and
criminally earned incomes as well as the ratification of resolution
#1373 of the United Nations aimed at fighting against financial
terrorism.

It is still unknown when the MPs are going to return to the discussion
of this bill.