Baku, Azerbaijan, June 9
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
The World Bank expects adoption of amendments to the financial legislation of Azerbaijan this year, which will attract new investments to the economy, WB leading expert in finance and private sector in the South Caucasus, Angela Prigozhina, told Trend.
She reminded that presently Azerbaijan is working on adoption of the "Law on Regulation of Financial Markets", amendments are being developed to regulatory documents on the regulation of capital, reserves, reporting and other aspects of activities of banks and insurance companies.
"In addition, amendments are being developed to the insurance and banking legislation and the 'Law on Payment Services'."
Changes are also expected to be made to the "Law on Bankruptcy", which will improve the extrajudicial mechanisms of debt restructuring and reduce the volume of bad assets.
"The format of regulation and supervision over financial markets significantly changed after the 2007-2008 crisis, and many countries, including the nearest neighbors [of Azerbaijan], actively applied or amended the regulatory framework, introduced new requirements for financial institutions on information disclosure, risk management and capital calculation," she said.
Azerbaijan, according to Prigozhina, should also accelerate reforms in this direction to increase the reliability, competitiveness, efficiency of financial institutions, increase the confidence of investors, attract investment in the economy.
The expert noted that the key principles have already been laid in a bill on the regulation of financial markets.
"We are also working with Azerbaijan’s Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FIMSA) on other laws. WB experts are actively assisting FIMSA both in assessing compliance with international standards and in discussing the most acceptable approaches and practices in Azerbaijan," she added.
Azerbaijan joined the WB Group in 1992.
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