On November 5, 2010 a team from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) headed by Keith Simmons, USAID/Azerbaijan Acting Country Coordinator, visited the Financial Monitoring Service under the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan (FMS). The team met with Adishirin Gasimov, Director of the FMS, and the staff.

The visit started with a short meeting that encompassed an exchange of opinions on mutual collaboration. Both sides expressed their satisfaction with joint collaboration. “Having worked so close, we consider USAID as part of our team.” said Mr. Gasimov. “USAID was the first to provide us with technical assistance when FMS was established.”

USAID Acting Country Coordinator Mr. Simmons took the floor and thanked the FMS staff for their efforts in achieving remarkable results. To acknowledge their outstanding progress in meeting international best practice standards on anti-money laundering and combating financing terrorism (AML/CFT), Acting Country Coordinator presented a Certificate of Accomplishment to the FMS Director.

Following the meeting, the Director of the FMS toured the USAID team to different departments and briefed them about the activities of these departments.

The FMS was established in 2009 to provide implementation of the state policy, improve the supervision system, and coordinate activities of relevant state authorities in the anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism field. These efforts were supported through USAID’s Financial Sector Stability Project (FSSP), with co-financing support transferred to USAID from Central Bank of Azerbaijan. As a result of intensive capacity building and institutional development with USAID’s FSSP, the FMS has made remarkable progress in the identification and processing of current and suspicious transaction reports. Nine regulations were drafted and implemented with significant technical assistance of USAID/FSSP experts.

As of February 2010, Azerbaijan was included within the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) Ongoing Process list (also known as the FATF Watch List). As a result of these overall efforts, Azerbaijan was removed from the FATF monitoring process by the decision taken at the FATF Plenary Session in October 2010. The FATF decision was made taking into consideration the accomplishments of the Republic of Azerbaijan in AML/CFT field within short period of time.