The draft law "On the fight against the legalization of property obtained through crime and the financing of terrorism" has been prepared.

According to APA, the draft law was discussed at today's meeting of the Legal Policy and State Building Committee of the Milli Majlis.

The draft law was prepared based on the recommendations of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force).

This draft law is aimed at detecting and preventing the legalization of property obtained through crime and the financing of terrorism, as well as creating conditions that exclude the possibility of using the country's economic system for illegal purposes, fulfilling the obligations arising from international agreements that the Republic of Azerbaijan is a party to in this regard, as well as regulates relations related to the implementation of effective domestic and international cooperation in order to protect the interests of the state and society.

The general provisions of the draft law define the meanings of the main concepts, the rules of implementation of this law within the jurisdiction of the Republic of Azerbaijan and beyond, as well as the cases of application of the requirements of this law to non-financial institutions and professionals.

According to the draft law, the following directions of preventive measures in the field of combating the legalization of property obtained through crime and the financing of terrorism are determined:

- Customer compliance measures;

- Reliance on third parties;

- Obligation to keep information and documents;

- Transactions with political influential persons, their close relatives or persons with whom they have a close relationship;

- New technologies;

- High risk zones;

- Internal control software.

In accordance with the draft law, persons who have obligations, as well as persons who provide auditor services, submit to the financial monitoring body information and documents on the following transactions to be monitored:

- Information and documents on cash or electronic transfer operations of funds equal to or above the minimum limit determined by the financial monitoring body;

- Information and documents about operations or attempts to conduct such operations, regardless of the amount, in the cases provided for in Article 11.2 of the draft law;

- Information and documents about the transactions provided for in Article 11.3 of this draft law, regardless of the amount or whether there are grounds for suspicion.

The procedural rules regarding the submission of the above-mentioned to the financial monitoring body by the persons who bear the obligation, as well as the persons providing auditor services, are also regulated by Article 11 of this draft Law.

Chapter 4 of the draft law defines the powers of the financial monitoring body, control bodies and control measures, chapter 5 defines domestic and international cooperation, and chapter 6 defines the final provisions.

The final provisions set forth the exemption from liability, liability for violation of law, and transitional provisions.

According to the transitional provisions, the provision defining the requirement for submission of information and documents by financial institutions to the financial monitoring body regarding the electronic transfer of financial funds equal to or exceeding the minimum amount determined by the financial monitoring body (Article 11.1.2.) it is supposed to enter into force 6 months after the minimum limit of the amount is determined by the monitoring body.

Except for the mentioned provision, other articles of this draft law are proposed to enter into force on February 1, 2023.