Armenia to toughen the fight against legalization of illegal incomes

YEREVAN, September 4. /ARKA/. The Armenian National Assembly's committee on financial and budget issues approved today a government-designed bill aimed at toughening the fight against legalization of illegal incomes.

"The number of transactions involving donations has sharply increased recently in Armenia. This issue should be regulated at the legislative level," Deputy Justice Minister Ara Mkrtchyan said during the discussion of the bill that involves a set of amendments to the law "On Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism."

The bill, he said, was introduced to combat money laundering and other illegal risks in donation transactions.

According to the proposed amendments, all units carrying out and recording donation-related transactions will be obliged to report all donation transactions to the Financial Monitoring Center of the Central Bank of Armenia.  

The results will eventually be collected in one database. Thanks to that, according to the Ministry of Justice, the risks currently available will become more manageable.

"In 2020, some 8,674 donations were recorded in Armenia. In 2021, their number increased to 12,060, and in 2022 - to 15,765. That is, a two-fold increase has actually been recorded in two years," the deputy minister said. -0-