BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.8
By Zeyni Jafarov – Trend:
One of the priorities in the activity of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) is protecting rights of consumers and investors in domestic financial markets, Nurlana Mammadova, the CBA’s leading specialist told Trend.
According to Mammadova, the Central Bank has been fulfilling the responsibilities for the regulation and supervision of the financial services market from 2019, based on the Azerbaijani president’s order. To this end, a new structural division was created within the CBA on ensuring the consumer rights.
The competence of namely this structural division has included the prompt suppression of violations of consumer rights and the provision of instructions that are binding in order to prevent violations in the field of protection of consumer and investor rights in financial markets, she added.
The leading specialist said that the Central Bank is investigating complaints of violation of consumer and investor rights in the financial markets from legal entities and individuals and is taking measures to counteract violations.
“In order to ensure protection of the rights of investors and consumers in the financial markets and ensure the restoration of their violated rights, the Central Bank considers applications received from these persons in the field of the securities market, investment funds, insurance, credit organizations (banks, non-bank credit organizations and postal operators) and corporate governance in joint stock companies,” pointed out Mammadova. “Then the Central Bank receives the necessary documents and information from the subjects and issuers under its control, and then analyzes them.”
She also noted that if, as a result of investigations, violations of consumer or investor rights are revealed, the Central Bank imposes an administrative penalty on the violating financial entity. However, the CBA first issues binding instructions for execution.
The leading specialist emphasized that the activities of the Central Bank do not include issues related to leasing companies and pawnshops, as well as investment advice on trading in securities and derivative financial instruments.
The Chamber of the Financial Markets Supervision in Azerbaijan (FIMSA), which had functioned from February 2016 to November 2019, was the local financial regulatory body responsible for monitoring the activities of banks, non-bank credit organizations, insurance companies, stock exchanges and securities dealers. However, since 2019, all the responsibilities were transferred to the CBA.
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